Just over 80 years ago, delegates from 44 nations met in bucolic Bretton Woods in New Hampshire. Freed from big city distractions, they agreed over three exhausting weeks the treaties that were to establish two world-changing institutions, the IMF and World Bank.
Kristalina Georgieva and Ajay Banga, the current heads of the two bodies, took a small group of us back there last week to begin a discussion on where next for the Bretton Woods institutions. For a world again in crisis, what can they do to help it recover? Unlike that first conference, whose isolation helped limit developing country and civil society participation, this retreat was meant to begin a wider global debate. The more voices the better.
Expectations are low for multilateralism today in a fragmented world. But many delegates had dodged German U-boats to get to the 1944 conference. The world was far from at peace. Still, the legend was established: statesmanship prevailed and politics seemed suspended. But is that true? In fact, they were consumed by geopolitical rifts that were not dissimilar from those of today.