From World Order to Global Order: States, Markets, and Dissent.

Graeme S. Mount is a history professor at Laurentian University and
author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable Kingdom.

Dorval Brunelle originally wrote this book in French, and UBC Press decided that it deserved an English-language edition.

The book begins with attempts by the world’s leaders to bring order out of chaos in the aftermath of the Second World War. The results included the Bretton Woods agreements, the United Nations Charter, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the International Trade Organization, and, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Within the Western Hemisphere, there was the Mexico Conference of February 21 to March 8, 1945, which drafted the Act of Chapultapec. Latin American countries also joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Unfortunately, the Cold War divided the world, and the Marshall Plan and the Molotov Plan divided Europe. Western Europe, beneficiary of the Marshall Plan, evolved into what is now the European Union. The Western Hemisphere developed its own regional trading blocks, most notably the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) in 1968 and MERCOSUR, which includes many countries of the South American mainland. The Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement followed in 1989, NAFTA in 1994.

Brunelle reviews the circumstances which led to these organizations and the terms of the various agreements. As the anticipated readership for this book is largely Canadian, two of the seven chapters deal with the Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA. Economic historians will find the book interesting and useful.