Introduction

Economic globalization has a long history. The end of the 20th century witnessed a spurt in internationalization in many fields and the economic opening up of many countries in Eastern Europe plus China. A century ago economic internationalization stimulated economic growth, but it also created new interdependencies in a world economy which was dominated by the United Kingdom. In this century the US has become the global economic and political leader. The US has been rather pragmatic in creating and using international organizations in both a regional and a global context as a means to provide stability and incentives for cooperation. However, the growing number of member countries has made many organizations rather inflexible and led to bureaucratic inefficiencies, and sometimes — as in the case of the UN or the UNESCO — organizations have also suffered from major countries withholding contribution payments temporarily.