Professor Ngaire Woods comments on the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Professor Ngaire Woods has commented on the recent arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.

In an interview for BBC Radio 4 (16 May), Ngaireaccepted that the arrest injects a lot of uncertainty into the world economy, but nevertheless thought that from a non-European perspective the repercussions may be positive, as she said whoever steps in will find themselves held more tightly to account by other countries. The interview can be heard here.

In an article by Steve Hendrix, Jason Horowitz, Howard Schneider, and Josh White in The Washington Post (16 May), Professor Woods was cited on Strauss-Kahns role in leading the IMF during the global economic crisis: He moved decisively and showed considerable leadership in trying to get the fund to move as quickly as it could to respond to developing country needs in the wake of the crisis. She added that Strauss-Kahn and his senior managers were really pushing hard to try to create new facilities that would support countries trying to absorb the impact of the crisis. The article can be accessed here.

Ngaire was also interviewed for Al Jazeera (25 May)on the question of who will succeed Strauss-Kahn as the next IMF head. She says the ground has shifted: the IMF has become a lender mainly to European economies and emerging economies are the big creditors. The emerging economies will want more of a role in holding the IMF to account. The interview can be found here.