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Christian Dittus
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GLOBAL DISCORD

Paul Tucker

Values and Power in a Fractured World Order

How to sustain an international system of cooperation in the midst of geopolitical struggle

Can the international economic and legal system survive today's fractured geopolitics? Democracies are facing a drawn-out contest with authoritarian states that is entangling much of public policy with global security issues. In Global Discord, Paul Tucker lays out principles for a sustainable system of international cooperation, showing how democracies can deal with China and other illiberal states without sacrificing their deepest political values. Drawing on three decades as a central banker and regulator, Tucker applies these principles to the international monetary order, including the role of the U.S. dollar, trade and investment regimes, and the financial system.

Combining history, economics, and political and legal philosophy, Tucker offers a new account of international relations. Rejecting intellectual traditions that go back to Hobbes, Kant, and Grotius, and deploying instead ideas from David Hume, Bernard Williams, and modern mechanism-design economists, Tucker describes a new kind of political realism that emphasizes power and interests without sidelining morality. Incentives must be aligned with values if institutions are to endure. The connecting tissue for a system of international cooperation, he writes, should be legitimacy, creating a world of concentric circles in which we cooperate more with those with whom we share the most and whom we fear the least.

Paul Tucker is a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and the author of Unelected Power (Princeton). He is a former central banker and regulator at the Bank of England, and a former director at Basel's Bank for International Settlements, where he chaired some of the groups designing reforms of the international financial system after the Global Financial Crisis.
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Published 2022-11-01 by Princeton University Press

Comments

“Paul Tucker writes with the erudition of a scholar and the realism of a practitioner. Connecting political theory, economics, history, and international relations, he sketches possible futures for the global system while nudging the reader toward an international order that must pass a legitimacy test within democracies. This book packs a powerful argument—common sense yet radical in its implications.” —Dani Rodrik, author of Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy “In this extraordinarily impressive book, Paul Tucker makes a strong case for how the international economy should be dealt with in the context of geopolitics. Tucker is a rare thinker, combining in-depth knowledge in economics, political science, and moral and political philosophy with extensive experience at the highest levels of international finance. I know of no one else who could have written a book of the scope and depth of Global Discord.” —Allen Buchanan, Duke University “Tucker develops a totally novel theory of international relations that foregrounds conditions of cooperation and gives priority to the questions of legitimacy and the legitimation of power. A highly valuable contribution to realist political thought.” —Matt Sleat, author of Liberal Realism “With a thoughtful analysis that is remarkably wide and deep in scope, Paul Tucker offers an insightful liberal response to systemic global problems that have been the traditional focus of realists in international relations.” —Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate in Economics