The Post-Cold War Trading System

With the ending of the Cold War, the search for a new international and economic order has begun. This text examines the role of key economic power brokers, particularly the USA, in the reconstruction and reconfiguration of an international economy after World War II. The author argues that the US policy efforts were so successsful that they led to an unprecendented renewal of economic growth, living standards and education levels in postwar Europe and Japan. Ironically, those same policy successes unintentionally fostered the relative decline of US dominance on the world trade scene as the reduction of trade and investment barriers prompted friction and conflict between different kinds of capitalist systems. Identifying the historical and legal issues in postwar trade policy, Ostrey attempts to chart our economic course through the last half of the 20th century and into the next.