While NATO is tasked with managing issues of war and peace – ‘security’
by any other name - the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), the World Trade Organization and the G8/G20 have the narrower,
though no less difficult, job of supporting the global economy.
This emerged from the Second World War in terrible condition, leading
economic policy-makers to the conclusion that without a system of
international support and policy coordination, there was every chance
that the world would again experience the sort of economic and financial
turbulence that had led to the Great Depression and, arguably, the
Second World War itself. Over time, interest in the connection between
the international political and economic systems has led to the growth of
International Political Economy
(IPE), a specialised subdiscipline of
IR that was discussed briefly in Chapter 1 of this guide.