Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

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On August 27, 1965, the Hon. Henry H. Fowler, United States Secretary of the Treasury, signed the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of other States. Subject to ultimate ratification by the Senate, the United States joined Great Britain and eight other nations in formally expressing the desire to create a new international forum devoted to the conciliation and arbitration of foreign investment disputes. Drafted by direction of the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Finance—The World Bank—the Convention requires the approval of 20 States to become operative.''

In sponsoring this Convention the Bank has again used its "good offices" to assist in economic development. Together with its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, the Bank is a product of the Bretton Woods Conference held in New Hampshire in 1944. During the period between the two World Wars it became clear that the system of international payments and the relationship between currencies then in use were inadequate. Not only did that system tend to retard recovery from a world-wide economic depressicm, but it was also susceptible of manipulation by a designing nation. The International Monetary Fund's function is to make available to its Member States, under specified conditions, the foreign exchange needed to settle their international accounts. It also considers ways to achieve sufficient international liquidity to finance the expansion of foreign trade and to discourage speculation against key currencies.