Global Institutions and the Architecture

This course explores the role of international institutions—including the IMF, World Bank, UN agencies, Multilateral Environmental Agreements, regional development banks, and national development banks—in shaping the global response to climate change. We will analyze how mandates, governance structures, financial instruments, and geopolitical dynamics shape the capacity of these institutions to mobilize and allocate climate finance. 

The course emphasizes how current institutions emerged from historical conditions (e.g., the Bretton Woods system, the dollar’s role as anchor currency, and mechanisms to prevent financial instability), and how those legacies both enable and constrain climate finance today. Students will examine reform debates and the rise of new institutions (e.g., AIIB, BRICS’ New Development Bank) as potential complements or alternatives to the prevailing institutions.  

Site visits to the IMF and World Bank in Washington, D.C. and the United Nations Headquarters in New York will provide first-hand exposure to the workings of these institutions.  The class will also have live video interactions with other global institutions.