Author
Prof. Claudia Kedar, historian and Head of the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Prof. Claudia Kedar's research interests include the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and their relations with Latin America; the Cold War in Latin America; the so-called "Washington Consensus"; economic multilateralism and globalization; and contemporary Argentina and Chile.
Discussant
Atish Rex Ghosh is the IMF's Historian. His assignment involves a wide variety of analytical work on issues related to the stability of the international monetary system, including exchange rate regimes, external balance dynamics, capital flows and capital controls, monetary and foreign exchange intervention policies, debt sustainability, and public finance.
Book
The World Bank and the Cold War in Latin America - The Argentine Challenge, Stanford University Press
Description
Established at the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, the World Bank soon emerged as a central pillar of the postwar order, and the world's leading development institution. This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the World Bank's pivotal role in the Cold War in Latin America through an examination of its interactions with Argentina—one of Latin America's largest economies, and a heavy borrower of the World Bank. In doing so, it unveils the surprisingly complex interplay between the World Bank's bureaucratic goals, US administrations, and Argentina's efforts to serve its own national interests.
Drawing on a multi-archival corpus of primary sources, including newly declassified documents from the World Bank archives, the author examines the Bank's often-counterintuitive responses to major economic and political challenges posed by Argentina, including populism, developmentalism, economic nationalism, authoritarianism, human rights violations, and the "Lost Decade" of the 1980s. Showing how the World Bank ranged from full alignment with US interests to neutrality and subtle dissent, the book reveals the integral influence of the Bank as a Cold War actor. Raising vital questions about the role of international organizations in developing countries, this book reframes our understanding of the economic Cold War in Latin America and beyond.
Registration
Registration required
Organisers
The event is jointly organised by the Geneva Graduate Institute's Centre for Finance and Development and Centre for Digital Humanities and Multilateralism.
