Gallagher Publishes New Book with Cambridge University Press
Dr. Kevin P. Gallagher, Pardee Professor and director of the Global Development Policy Center has co-authored a new book with Cambridge University Press titled China and the International Economic Order. Written with China scholar Gregory T. Chin from York University, the book traces China’s engagement with the Bretton Woods institutions and advances a theory of China’s engagement in the international financial architecture.
The book is open access and free to read online here. Published online by Cambridge University Press on October 10, 2025.
This Element examines China’s evolving relations with the Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs), specifically the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group from the 1980s through 2025. Using a combination of new qualitative findings and quantitative datasets, the authors observe that China has taken an evolving approach to the BWIs in order to achieve its multiple agendas, acting largely as a ‘rule-taker’ during its first two decades as a member, but, over time, also becoming a ‘rule-shaker’ inside the BWIs, and ultimately a new ‘rule-maker’ outside of the BWIs. The analysis highlights China’s exercise of ‘two-way countervailing power’ with one foot inside the BWIs, and another outside, and pushing for changes in both directions. China’s interventions have resulted in BWs reforms and the gradual transformation of the global order, while also generating counter-reactions especially from the United States.
Gallagher also interviewed with Institute for New Economic Thinking to discuss his publication, The Case for a New Bretton Woods, co-authored with Richard Kozul-Wright, Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Watch the full interview here.
Kevin P. Gallagher is a professor of Global Development Policy at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and the director of the Boston University Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center). He serves as the lead expert on Multilateral Development Bank Reform to the Brazilian Presidency of the G20. Additionally, he is a member of the Task Force on Climate, Development and the International Monetary Fund and a co-chair of the Debt Relief for a Green and Inclusive Recovery Project. Gallagher is the author or co-author of eight books, including China and the Global Economic Order (Cambridge University Press, 2025), The Case for New Bretton Woods (Wiley, 2021), and The China Triangle: Latin America’s China Boom and the Fate of the Washington Consensus (Oxford University Press, 2016).
To know more about his scholarly work and achievements, visit his faculty profile.