This past month may be remembered as the moment the United States lost its role as the underwriter of the global economic system. True, there have been any number of periods of frustration for the US before, and times when American behaviour was hardly multilateralist, such as the 1971 Nixon shock, ending the convertibility of the dollar into gold. But I can think of no event since Bretton Woods comparable to the combination of China’s effort to establish a major new institution and the failure of the US to persuade dozens of its traditional allies, starting with Britain, to stay out of it.
剛剛過(guò)去的這個(gè)月可能會(huì)作為一個(gè)歷史性時(shí)刻載入史冊(cè)，它標(biāo)志著美國(guó)失去了全球經(jīng)濟(jì)體系擔(dān)保人的角色。誠(chéng)然，美國(guó)以前經(jīng)歷過(guò)數(shù)段挫折期，很多時(shí)候它的行為也算不上多邊主義，比如1971年結(jié)束了美元兌換黃金的尼克松沖擊(Nixon shock)。但除布雷頓森林體系(Bretton Woods)以外，我想不到有任何事件可與以下兩件事的結(jié)合相提并論：中國(guó)力求建立一個(gè)重要的新機(jī)構(gòu)；而從英國(guó)開(kāi)始，美國(guó)未能說(shuō)服幾十個(gè)傳統(tǒng)盟友不要參與該機(jī)構(gòu)。