Introduction: capitalism and global governance in business history

Capitalism and global governance became inextricably linked when the turmoil of the twentieth century drove the development of institutional mechanisms beyond nation states to manage peace after world wars, address the fallout of financial and economic crises, reorganize political and trade relations after the end of empire, mitigate inequality, and respond to environmental degradation. In the creation of international organizations, the economic and social system of capitalism found reinforcement as much as regulation. As a result, these two predominant forces and their agents relate through simultaneous concert and conflict. This dialectic contributed to the protracted crises of recent decades, demanding a critical analysis of the futures of capitalism and governance on a global scale, especially as the hyper-globalization and global interconnectedness of the twentieth century gives way to a new era of de-globalization and resurgent nationalism.