“We are all multilateralists”: “Bipolarity” defined the international order during the cold war. “Uni-multipolarity” was one academic’s catch phrase for the post-Berlin Wall world system. The Americans dominated but within a framework of emergent and multiple economic superpowers. Today “multilateralism” is the word in vogue. A differentiating feature of the current crisis is that it has its core in the epicentre of capitalism. The causes lie in the mistakes of US mortgage institutions; the ingenuity of Wall Street whiz kids and the policy blunders of the Western regulators. Of course there have been global financial problems in the past but they have all originated in the periphery of the capitalist heartland (viz. the Asian currency debacle of the 80s; the Russian debt problem and the Japanese banking shut down in the 90s). And they have never been so severe as to call for a broadening of the existing institutions of “multilateral” economic decision making. All that is now in a state of flux. The crisis has spread so quickly to the emerging economies that it is clear that the problem cannot be resolved without the concerted and synchronous effort of all economies. Multilateralism is acquiring a new meaning. Bush’s guest list for the November 15 summit in Washington is not limited to the G8 industrial economies. It has been expanded to include 20 world leaders. Hitherto when multilateralism has collided with nationalism, the former has inevitably been pushed into the background. This may well not be the case in the future.

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