Book excerpt: The paper argues that the design of the international financial system should take into consideration three problems: financial market instability; basic macroeconomic and financial asymmetries which characterise the international economy; and the additional problems generated by the current globalization process. A distinction is drawn between systemic issues, and centre-periphery issues. Based on this distinction, the paper proposed a broad agenda which relates both to the organisational structure of international financial institutions, and the services provided by them.