Abstract

This article examines the need for an interdependence of government and international institutions in the United States and others. The most important task facing the leadership of the democratic, industrialized nations is improving the functioning of the institutions established to manage the international economy through intergovernmental cooperation and creating new ones where the need exists. In an interdependent world there are many tasks central to the realization of basic human values and the avoidance of threats to internal economic and social stability. These tasks increasingly transcend national borders. No government today can adequately discharge its responsibilities solely by its own efforts. Failure to harmonize the exercise of sovereignties to meet some of those crucial problems confronting the international economy is to forfeit one of the essential attributes of national sovereignty in the world in which we live. In these perspectives, a new and heavy burden rests upon the chiefs of state and top political leaders of the major democratic industrialized nations: to organize and institutionalize a collective political management of the international economy.