In his work, international relations lecturer Jeffrey M. Chwieroth attempts to offer a comprehensive study regarding the history of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) organization while also focusing on the process of financial liberalization. In hindsight, Jeffrey Chwieroth’s main aim of this work is to reveal the vital decisions as well as policies that stress the capital ideas that institutions such as IMF depend on to perform and are also responsible for financial liberalization. In this book, Chwieroth delves to explain widely how the IMF has been significant in virtually every important economic event in the past by offering an inside view of the organization.

The book offers an extensive documentation in which Chwieroth employs a sociological and a constructivist approach to discussing his topic (Andrew, 2010). The author broadens his study by including a survey of 300 economists as well as a dataset of codes involving more than 400 IMF staff members from which he tracks the impacts of professionalization as well as administrative recruitment towards organizational behavior (Clark, 2010). Chwieroth does not focus entirely on the range of policies and activities available at the IMF, but rather, he attempts to dwell on the organization’s internal policies and administrative strategies related to capital controls and account concerned with liberalization. He particularly notes the divergence present between the organization’s official policies and the informal behavior posed by the organization’s staff in relation to capital account liberalization. He then proceeds to describe IMF’s internal operations in most of the book while describing the procedure through which the divergence emerged.

Chwieroth begins by noting that the presence of “what principal-agent (PA) theorists call “slippage,” that existed between the IMF official rules and staff actions during which most staff members, encouraged for liberalization despite official rules only allocating member states that rights to access the organization’s controls (Chwieroth, 2010). This slippage that occurred between staff behavior and the official rules happened in five Intra-organizational procedures that Chwieroth determined in his study as administrative recruitment, professionalization, learning, adoption, and norm entrepreneurship. The principal-agent theory, the book highlights, offers a simple framework from which the actions of individuals can be assessed in these five Intra-organizational processes that Chwieroth attempts to review in order explain the history of the IMF and liberalization. Chwieroth in retrospect spends several of the book’s chapters tracing the history of the IMF while focusing on the organization’s staff’s ever changing attitudes regarding capital controls and related processes that in effect go to show the role of the organization in various global economic events. Chwieroth concludes his work by tracking the recent economic changes that occurred in 2009 because of IMF’s strategy during the occurrence of the financial crisis (Bodea, 2013). There has occurred new support regarding regulations directed at participants in the financial market found in developing nations since the crisis, with IMF staff, as Chwieroth notes, demanding for the extension of the financial regulations to also include every institution that contributes to the systemic risk.

One can easily note that Chwieroth’s audience is not just a group of economic enthusiasts, but anyone interested in understanding economic perspectives in organizations as well as international relations. This is because he approaches this issue as an outsider who intends to break down a complex issue with enough evidence for an outsider’s understanding (Fourcade, 2011). The author attempts to explain in a comprehensive manner how the IMF as a financial organization operates by focusing on elaborating the institution’s organizational behavior, thus, expanding his audience from just economic enthusiasts to just about anyone who may be interested in his topic.

Chwieroth effectively succeeds in presenting a comprehensive study of IMF’s history and the efforts to financial liberalization. This is because the author includes a wealth of documented evidence in discussing his thesis. For example, by including a survey of 300 economists as well as involving over 400 IMF staff members, the author succeeds in providing authentic information that is also accurate, hence, allowing for a comprehensive report. As such, the book is noteworthy in empirical perspective since it offers vast documentation of empirical data. Chwieroth also offers a structure that allows for a deeper analysis, which ultimates helps in the effective delivery of information (Chadha, 2012). Chwieroth bases his topic on the internal operations of the IMF, how the operations influence internalization as well as focusing on the organization’s approach towards capital freedom. Unlike Chwieroth’s work, many studies based on the IMF and other international organizations often tend to base their discussion on the role played by member states rather than the internal operations of the organizations (Zaharia, 2013). Often, these studies tend to apportion economic failure on the prominent member states associated with such organizations as they are deemed to be powerful enough to influence the organizations. It is rare to find books that explore the concept of the staff as well as the internal operations of similar organizations. With this kind of structure, Chwieroth succeeds in his meeting his goal.

In conclusion, Chwieroth’s book is uniquely well written and broadly covers its topic. By offering enough evidence that is also well documented, the writer presents an authentic piece of writing that can widely be used for educational purposes. The writer also adopts an effective sociological approach that allows his reader to understand his various sub-topics such as issues concerning staff members and the organization that helps bring out all the possible themes. Asides, Chwieroth’s structure, allow him the opportunity to write well while focusing on all the possible issues regarding his topic thus achieving comprehensiveness.