. the world in very quick time moved from a comfort zone of fixed exchange rates and a low and stable price for oil to a new era of floating exchange rates, and an unprecedented high price and volatility of one of the most critical commodities in international trade. further, fundamental change came in 1989 with the demise of communism and the unraveling of the soviet union, the other super power. the results of these separate events, when put together, represented a fundamental change in the architecture of the international political and economic system on the approach of the new millennium. a number of seminal books have been written on this new phenomena and they are worthy of note at this point. they are – • the end of history and the last man by francis fukuyama ; • the clash of civilisations and the remaking of world order by samuel huntington ; • the borderless world by kenichi ohmae. all of these books in direct and indirect ways speak to the issue of global governance in a world which had apparently lost its original moorings and needed new paradigms on which to base its relationships. these relationships involved those between states as well as between firms. the books raised various questions. for example, will differences in civilizations like western civilisation versus islam be a governing principle in the conduct of international political and economic affairs? the current situation revolving around the issue of terrorism may suggest this, although the jury is still very much out on the matter. the ascendancy of liberal democracy has been certainly confirmed as in theory there are certainly more states which have reasonably fair electoral practices. however, the deeper underpinnings of liberal democracy such as an independent judiciary, freedom of the press, and well - regulated markets are yet to appear in many countries. the borderless world is real in so far as the movement of finance, capital and the increasing flow of goods is concerned, but we are yet to see the demise of the nation state as predicted by ohmae as a corollary to the borderless world. what is clear is that there has been a consolidation of states into one world in terms of inclusiveness through such international institutions as the united nations, the bretton woods institutions, the imf and world bank, and the world trade organisation representing respectively politics, finance and trade. the demise of communism and the command system of resource allocation has left the market system in sole command as the arbiter of economic decision making. all countries, including the former soviet union are

sir k dwight venner : evolution of global governance and its critical offshoot corporate governance opening remarks by sir k dwight venner, governor of the eastern caribbean central bank, at the 2nd meeting of the caribbean corporate governance forum, st kitts, 8 march 2005. * * * mr chairman we meet at a time of unprecedented change in the international system with the advent of the new millennium. prior to this, however, the seeds of change leading to the very dynamic, fluid and volatile state of the international economy and political system were being laid by several critical events. these events laid the basis for the evolution of global governance and its critical offshoot corporate governance, which is the reason why we are gathered here today. an understanding of the history of the evolution of the international system is vital to an understanding of the corporate governance movement if one can term it that. the phenomena of globalisation which underpins this seemingly new aspect of our lives is not in fact new, but has been occurring with major interruptions since the 19th century. certainly between 1860 and 1913 there was a considerable flow of trade and capital between the established states and their colonial empires. this was interrupted by the world war i and the interwar period. the trade disputes and struggles for resources led to world war ii, following which there was an unprecedented period of stability and growth during the 1950s and 1960s. this came to an end in the late 1960s and certainly by 1971. during this period the map of the world changed considerably as did the geopolitics of the international system. a large number of countries, parts of former colonial empires, became independent and took their place in the community of nations. at the same time, however, the world became divided along ideological lines, the east - west divide which ushered in the cold war era. competition between east and west took the form of differences in political and economic systems, communism versus liberal democracy, and the command versus the market economy. one could describe the post world war ii environment as one of ideological competition revolving around politics, finance and trade. this system began to unravel in a remarkable way with the destabilisation of the market system as the inflation generated by the vietnam war in the united states, and the dollar surplus in europe, caused the demise of the bretton woods system of fixed exchange rates, which had guided the international financial system in the post war period. this, one can argue, led to the first oil crisis and further destabilisation