This valuable book examines the interaction between economic ideas and the policy-making process in Europe, centred around the creation of European Monetary Union. The essays cover three broad areas: early debates on European monetary integration, economic thought at the European Community institutions, and the establishment of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in Europe. Core elements of the book are analyses of Europe's quest for exchange rate stability and of the debates on the nature of EMU and the path towards it. With the aid of crucial case studies, Ivo Maes goes on to chart the growing awareness among policymakers of the increasing interdependence between Europe's economies and the rise of a new medium-term, stability-oriented policy conception - both vital and necessary factors in the genesis of EMU. Drawing on the extensive experience of the author, both as an academic and a senior official involved in European economic policy-making, this book undoubtedly contributes towards a better understanding of the role of economic ideas in the process of European monetary integration. It will be an important addition to the literature on EMU and will be required reading for scholars and policymakers in the fields of economics, European studies and the history of economic thought.

With World War II still raging, nations came together to create a new international monetary order, the Bretton Woods system. This agreement created the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and a system of stable exchange rates with currencies pegged against the dollar. One man saw the political, economic, and moral tensions inherent in keeping the dollar, a national currency, as a global reserve currency. When the monetary arrangement collapsed in 1973, economist Robert Triffin had already predicted its downfall two decades previously. Robert Triffin, a Belgian-American scholar and policy advisor, was a defining voice in economics and international politics in the twentieth century and an architect of the new multilateral liberal world order in his own right. Best known for his analysis of the vulnerabilities of the international monetary system - the "Triffin dilemma" - Triffin was a voice of reason and compassion in the postwar period. Triffin played a key role in the debates on European monetary integration, especially with his proposals for a European Reserve Fund and a European currency unit, becoming one of the intellectual fathers of Europe's single currency, the euro. This intellectual biography evaluates what made Triffin a crucial figure in modern economic history. With an emphasis on the ideas that shaped the postwar international system, Robert Triffin: A Life explores both the man and the mission. In addition to analyzing his work in economics and policymaking, Ivo Maes and Ilaria Pasotti trace Triffin's story from a very modest background, as the son of a butcher, who grew up through the interwar period, to a singularly influential economist in the late twentieth century. The first biography of one of the intellectual giants of the postwar era, Robert Triffin critically examines the accomplishments and the legacy of a scholar who believed that innovations in economic policy could lead to a better and more peaceful world.

Who were key figures in the making of European monetary union? Which ideas did they contribute to ensuring that monetary union would be sustainable? How prescient were they in identifying the necessary and sufficient foundations of a sustainable monetary union? This book provides the first systematic historical examination of key architects of European monetary union in the period before its launch in 1999. Using original archival and interview research, it investigates the intellectual and career backgrounds of these architects, their networking skills, and their own doubts and reservations about the way in which monetary union was being constructed. In the light of the later Euro Area, Architects of the Euro deals critically with not just their contribution to the making of European monetary union but also their legacy. The book brings together a distinguished group of scholars working on the history of Economic and Monetary Union.