Why Reforms to the International Order Didn’t Survive the Global Financial Crisis

Classic ghost stories often begin with the discovery of a mysterious manuscript in an ancient mansion. The hero turns up some yellowing necromantic texts in the dusty library, reads too much of it out loud, and before you know it the undead are all over the place, rattling their chains and spreading bloodcurdling panic. Columns about foreign policy tend to have more prosaic origins. But last week, I found myself in a stately 16th-century home looking at a strange text that summoned up the ghosts of old debates about multilateral institutions. These ghosts might feel awfully distant, but they still […]