Winter is Coming

摘要

On 1 July 1944, the United States convened a conference at a ski resort hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Delegates of 44 allied nations were there to discuss the post-war global order with America, then the world's military, financial and economic superpower. The American proposal was simple. Instead of absorbing the European and Axis empires and establishing Pax Americana, the Washington delegation proposed three things: free access to the American market, protection of shipping lanes, and security from the Soviets, including a nuclear umbrella. In return, the 44 nations would allow America to fight the Cold War in any manner it chose. Exchanging their national security policies for those three gifts was a no-brainer, and globalization was born. In the following years, organisations administering the new world order grew in number, size and power. They now include NATO, the UN, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the G7, and others. In 72 years, these organisations changed the 44 Bretton Woods members from needy supplicants to powerful competitors. The problem is, they continue to draw on the economic concessions and largesse of the country that founded the system - the United States. Then the disruptor of globalisation entered the White House in 2016.