As one grappled with the madness to get to the method, the questions around the fate of the financial institutions like IMF, World Bank etc has many curious. Amid the intensifying crises of debt, inequality, and climate collapse, the third webinar in the series The Political Economy of the Trump Era, titled International Financial Institutions Under Trump: Perspectives from India and the Global South, explored the shifting architecture of global finance and its entanglement with authoritarian politics. The session looked at how U.S. hegemony, especially through the Bretton Woods institutions is being recalibrated, not diminished, to serve a new agenda: one driven by nationalist capital, coercive surveillance, and the corporate capture of public institutions.
This session brought together voices from across Africa and India to assess the implications of the Trump doctrine on the IMF and World Bank, especially as these institutions reposition themselves as instruments of private capital, cloaked in the language of reform and what it means for the Global South. With sovereign debt crises escalating, development finance shrinking, and fossil capital being repackaged as climate solutions, the discussion foregrounded how the financial system is being weaponised to secure U.S. interests while pushing austerity, deregulation, and privatisation across the South.
Speakers interrogated the role of international financial institutions not only as relics of U.S.-led multilateralism, but as active agents of neocolonial-neoliberal restructuring – extracting wealth, enforcing policy discipline, and shielding corporate interests from accountability. Drawing on lived testimonies, regional developments, and the evolving role of BRICS and other alternative mechanisms, the conversation also offered insights into emerging possibilities, resistance, institutional reform, and the urgent need to imagine financial sovereignty beyond the IMF–World Bank, U.S led axis.
Across the discussion, a number of clear common threads emerged: the increasing subordination of public finance to private capital; the weaponisation of debt and trade rules for geopolitical ends; and the failure of global financial institutions to respond to the demands of justice and sustainability. Instead, the IMF and World Bank continue to operate as enforcement arms of capital and empire – working in the interest of few.
The panelists for this webinar included CP Chandrashekar, Demba Moussa Dembele, Joe Athialy, and the discussion was moderated by Anusha Lal.
Read the full report here: International Financial Institutions Under Trump: International Financial Institutions Under Trump: Perspectives from India and the Global South.
Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), in collaboration with The Wire (as media partner), Sambhaavnaa Institute, and Progressive International, is co-organising this eight-part webinar series titled ‘The Political Economy of the Trump Era: Challenges & Opportunities of the Shifting World Order’, conceived to better understand the global moment we are all inhabiting.
Read more about the webinar series here.
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