"Exploiting recently declassified documents from both the United States and Europe and employing economic analysis and international relations theory, Francis Gavin offers a reassessment of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates and dollar-gold convertability." "Standard accounts argue that this system played a key role in stabilizing great power politics during the postwar period, especially within the Western Alliance, as rules and institutions promoted interdependence and eliminated self-interested economic competition that policymakers believed had sparked conflict in the past.". "Gavin demonstrates that Bretton Woods was in fact a highly politicized system that was prone to crisis and required constant intervention and controls to continue functioning. More important, postwar monetary relations were not a salve to political tensions, as is often contended. International monetary concerns often spilled over into political and security disputes. Furthermore, the politicization of the global payments system allowed nations to use monetary coercion to achieve political and security ends, causing deep conflicts within the Western Alliance."--BOOK JACKET.