## Editors Letter

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### On the cover
- Illustrator Peter Reynolds’ cover calls to mind the complexity of policymaking in today’s more polarized and fragmented world—a topic that the June 2022 issue explores in depth.

### A more fragmented world — key framing
- The rare confluence of geopolitical, economic, and technological forces now confronting the world may reverberate for generations.
- Current shocks highlighted:
  - The war is thrusting the world into a fraught period of geopolitical realignment, supply disruptions, food and energy insecurity, and more volatile financial markets.
  - These shocks could shake social and political stability in some countries while weakening the world’s ability to confront climate change.
- IMF Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas: describes a sudden geopolitical shift revealing hidden fault lines and warns of a world fragmenting into “distinct economic blocs with different ideologies, political systems, technology standards, cross-border payment and trade systems, and reserve currencies.”
- Singapore’s Tharman Shanmugaratnam: a more fragmented world makes greater investment in global public goods more urgent and will require unprecedented public-private collaboration and a stronger, more effective multilateralism.
- Historian Patricia Clavin: turbulent times can energize actors and ideas that lead to better modes of cooperation.
- Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s overriding priority: to “accommodate a multipolar world without becoming more polarized.”

### Immediate risks and issue focus
- The war in Ukraine poses the most immediate risk.
- Specific contributions in the issue:
  - Nicholas Mulder: argues that sanctions against Russia have unprecedented consequences that should prompt a rethink of their use as a weapon of economic warfare.
  - Giovanni Peri: discusses the economic impact of refugees fleeing Ukraine.
  - “Picture This”: depicts the food crisis that threatens millions with hunger.
  - Other contributors: see soaring war-induced energy prices as a chance to spur the transition to green energy.
  - Eswar Prasad: argues that despite predictions to the contrary, the dollar will become more entrenched as the global go-to currency.

### Policy implications and responses highlighted
- Need to understand and respond to fragmentation amid:
  - A slowing global recovery.
  - Rising inflation.
  - Shrinking policymaking space.
- Emphasized policy directions:
  - Rethink use of sanctions as economic warfare given their unprecedented consequences.
  - Invest more in global public goods through public-private collaboration and stronger multilateral institutions.
  - Use energy price shocks as an opportunity to accelerate green-energy transitions.
  - Manage geopolitical competition and technology standards to avoid deeper polarization while accommodating multipolarity.

### Publication, circulation, and contact information
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*Source: Editors Letter, Finance & Development, June 2022.*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2022/june/editors-letter.pdf_