The strengthening of the economic forces which link together the economies of different countries has been a remarkable feature of the postwar years. The main contributing factor has been the rapid increase in international trade. This has been reinforced by the resurgence of international capital flows, tied to the growth of international corporations and to the birth of the Eurobonds market. Another characteristic of recent years is that contacts between policy makers of different countries have become much more frequent than in the past, among other things because of the striking development of international organizations.