Miles Kahler Livres

Americans and Europeans continue to have a unique relationship. But what is the foundation for this special affinity? Is it but a legacy of the Cold War and a remnant of attitudes forged when Americans and Europeans banded together to resist Soviet communism? Or does it have a more enduring foundation? The two essays in this book reflect on these central questions. Taken together, they probe the transatlantic past as well as our understanding of it, seeking to draw lessons and guidance for the future.Miles Kahler begins by questioning the prevailing narrative of transatlantic relations. He casts doubt on the widely accepted notion that the strength and durability of U.S.-European ties have been the product primarily of external threat. By examining periods prior to the onset of the Cold War, Kahler underscores that the transatlantic community also has deep economic, ideological, and cultural roots.Werner Link takes a different, but equally fresh, tack. He examines chronologically the blueprints that have formed U.S.- European relations over the past century. By thinking through how geopolitics and politics have interacted to produce many different versions of a recurring puzzle, Link offers a useful catalogue of competing paradigms for thinking about the future.Europe and America is an insightful study of both historical analogies and the future of the transatlantic relationship.

Leadership selection in the major global economic organizations produced unprecedented levels of public conflict during the 1990s. The convention that awards the IMF managing directorship to a European and the World Bank presidency to an American sparked conflict between the United States and Europe as well as growing discontent on the part of Japan and the developing countries. At the WTO, successive conflicts demonstrate deeper shortcomings in governance as membership expands rapidly and consensus decision making fails. Protracted efforts to choose new heads of these increasingly important organizations have undermined their legitimacy and distracted members from their core agendas.This selection process and its flaws provide a central theme for the analysis and prescriptions presented in this study, which focuses on the major international financial institutions (IFIs) and other global and regional multilaterals. Miles Kahler looks at the sources of conflict and presents recommendations for in the short run, changes in the process, such as the use of search committees; in the long run, the dismantling of the US-European convention at the IFIs and changes in representation at the WTO. The author's diagnosis and policy recommendations have important implications for leadership selection in other regional and global organizations.