The world's governing structures are higgledy-piggledy: disorderly, heads and tails in any or every direction. Such disorder fosters deficient governance. Decisions by noncooperating nations can generate damaging crossborder outcomes. Muddles destabilize mutual well-being.Public debate is often mired in superficial arguments about "globalization." This insightful book by economist Ralph C. Bryant instead emphasizes that the world's nations need to craft better middle-ground compromises to improve governance and manage increasing integration. Individual nations, Bryant argues, should fashion a balance between local autonomy and external openness, avoiding the extremes of rigid localism and unfettered openness. And nations need to act together collectively. Cooperative governance can encourage orderliness that mitigates disarray undermining mutual goals. The global challenge of the coronavirus pandemic is a vivid reminderthat international cooperation is becoming progressively more essential. Do nations and their leaders have sufficient foresight to use borders not as barriers but as catalysts for international cooperation? Could national migration policies find sustainable middle ground between the unrealistic extreme of unfettered freedom for people to cross borders and the inhumane exclusion of foreign refugees? Could augmented cross-border cooperation mitigate dangers from recurring financial instability? Could the world community foster collective actions to reduce the severe risks of global climate change? The answer to such questions can and should be yes. Wiser cross-border collective action nurtures a mutually supportive order offsetting the threats of disorder that may otherwise prevail. A healthy evolution of our planet requires requires! more orderly national governance and more ambitious cross-border cooperation.
Ralph C. Bryant has been a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution since 1976. He served as director of the Division of International Finance at the Federal Reserve Board and the international economist for the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee. Bryant's books include Turbulent Waters: Cross-Border Finance and International Governance (Brookings, 2003).
Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Analytic Fundamentals: Identity Spaces, Decision Spaces, Jurisdictions, Governing Authorities Externalities, Market Failures, Public Goods, Governance Failures Trade-offs Benefits of External Openness Costs and Risks of External Openness Distribution of the Net Benefits and Net Costs of External Openness Tensions between Local Autonomy and External Openness De Jure Sovereignty and De Facto Autonomy 3. Localism Insiders and Outsiders Simultaneously Looking Inward and Outward 4. Border Buffers General Guidelines Border Buffers for Goods, Services, and Financial Transactions Localist Diversity and a Level Playing Field? International Minimum Standards for All Jurisdictions? 5. Cross-Border Migration of People 6. External Imbalances and Exchange Rates Imbalances in Cross-Border Interactions Trade-off Choices for a Nation's Financial Governance Exchange-Rate Flexibility 7. Cross-Border Governance and International Cooperation Employ Border Buffers as Hostile Policy Instruments? Global Climate Change: Progress Depends on International Cooperative Agreements Cross-Border Comity, Historical Progress 8. Summing Up: Crafting a Balanced Compromise Postscript: Emergence of the Coronavirus Pandemic References Index
