Completing the Global Financial Architecture to Assist Vulnerable Countries

Randall Henning

Emerging-market and developing countries around the world confront a heightened level of financial stress in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and in the face of rapidly rising interest rates, a probable global recession, and economic consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This presentation examines the ability of the global financial safety net to help countries cope in this economic environment. Prof. Henning will address the roles and operation of the International Monetary Fund and other international and regional financial institutions - including the contentious issues of economic austerity imposed by them and “stigma” attached to their lending programs - as well as gaps in the global financial architecture. He advocates a more systematic, timely and robust process for restructuring countries’ sovereign debt in cases where it has become unsustainable.

Speaker Name

C. Randall Henning, Professor of International Economic Relations, American University

Date

Quarter

Fall

Speaker Bio

C. Randall Henning is Faculty Chair and Professor of International Economic Relations in the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C. His research addresses global governance and international and comparative political economy, focusing recently on institutional arrangements for crisis finance, regional integration and sovereign debt restructuring. He is author or co-author of numerous books, reports and articles, including Regional Financial Arrangements and the International Monetary Fund (CIGI 2020) and Tangled Governance: International Regime Complexity, the Troika, and the Euro Crisis (Oxford, 2017). His previous appointments include service as Visiting Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.