What if trade wars, sanctions, debt crises, and geopolitical rivalry are not merely political failures, but symptoms of deeper flaws in the architecture of the global economy? In this two-part episode of Visions of a Better World Podcast, Max Tallberg and Astrid Aminoff are joined by Professor Heikki Patomäki and Dr. Konsta Kotilainen both contributors to Deweaponizing Interdependence: Bringing the Idea of International Clearing Union into the Twenty-First Century (available open access), to discuss the book’s central arguments and their relevance in today’s increasingly fragmented world economy.
The conversation explores how the current international monetary system contributes to global instability, geopolitical tensions, and economic inequalities. In the first episode, the guests discuss the weaponization of economic interdependence, the limits of monetary hegemony, and why the absence of adequate global monetary institutions may itself be generating conflict. In the second episode, the focus shifts to solutions and the idea of a Global Clearing Union: an international institution that would facilitate trade and financial exchanges through a shared accounting system, helping to reduce global imbalances while encouraging cooperation between both debtor and surplus countries. Inspired by John Maynard Keynes’s original proposal, the discussion considers whether such reforms could contribute to a more stable, democratic, and equitable global order, and what they could mean for the future of humanity and global cooperation.
Heikki Patomäki is Professor of World Politics and Global Political Economy at the University of Helsinki and one of Finland’s leading scholars of global political economy, democracy, and global governance. His work explores international relations, economics, philosophy, peace studies, and futures thinking, with a particular focus on democratic transformation at the global level. He has held professorships and visiting positions at institutions including Nottingham Trent University, RMIT University in Melbourne, and the University of Cambridge.
Konsta Kotilainen is a postdoctoral researcher in world politics and global political economy at the University of Helsinki whose work explores global governance, monetary theory, economics, and philosophy. His doctoral dissertation on monetary sovereignty and macroeconomic policy autonomy received an international PhD Thesis Prize from the University of Pavia. He is currently writing a book on supranational currency arrangements funded by the Kone Foundation and is also a researcher in the University of Helsinki’s Fragile Frontier (SPACE) project on space governance, resilience, and geopolitical change.
The Visions of a Better World Podcast is available on RSS, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Listen to the episode here.
