Deweaponizing Interdependence : Bringing the Idea of International Clearing Union into the Twenty-First Century

Brings Keynes’s International Currency Union idea of deweaponising and stabilising the global monetary and trading system into the 21st century.

The Trump II administration's trade wars and framing of the dollar's reserve status have accelerated concerns about the sustainability of the current monetary and trade system. Against a backdrop of various disintegrative tendencies, this volume re-introduces the concept of International Clearing Union (ICU) and offers an important overview of critical approaches to the prevailing monetary system. The ICU concept is closely associated with J. M. Keynes but has older origins, diverse sources of debate, and a high degree of contemporary relevance. In discussing the concept this volume examines key contemporary political issues including principles of fairness in trade and finance, de-dollarization, development, exchange rate policy, capital controls, as well as urgent issues of climate emergency and ecological breakdown. It provides perspectives from different disciplines and from the Global North and South and opens up debate regarding new global institutional possibilities. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The Finnish Research Council.