IMF Part 2: Institution Report

You can read part 1 here
You can read part 2 here

This institution report will provide an in-depth investigation into the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It seeks to clearly outline the institutional history, purpose, membership, and projects of the IMF, as well as its governance structure and protocols. In the course of this examination, care will be paid to the IMF's complex relationship with the processes of globalization, and how it in turn impacts the institution of the state. In so doing, this will lay the foundation for a successful research design.

The history of the IMF begins with its conception in July 1944 (IMF, 2006). It was during the Bretton Woods meetings that 45 nations agreed to the kind of economic cooperation that would prevent a return to the dangerous protectionist policies of the Great Depression, such as “limiting imports, devaluing ... currencies ... and curtailing their citizens' freedom to buy goods abroad and to hold foreign exchange” (ibid.). Born in December of 1945, the IMF was tasked with ensuring exchange rate stability. The intervening decades have seen it transform itself in response to its growing membership (from an initial 29 member nations to 186 as of the 2009 inclusion of Kosovo) (Kosovo Times, 2009), as well as in response to changing world events, featuring an increased focus on crisis prevention. Initially the IMF made significant loans to industrialized economies, but in recent decades the majority have gone to developing and Newly Industrialized Countries (IMF, 2006).
[continued after the jump, or click on title to view full article]