International cooperation is solely an exercise in which the national authorities have the main responsibility for identifying and solving problems, albeit in a process which is monitored by other parties. Advocates of such a form of cooperation tend say that national authorities “know best”, or that full sovereignty and the absence of finger-pointing increase the chances of achieving cooperative outcomes.
Moreover, if each party managed to keep its own house in order – the theory goes – policy failures would not occur, negative spillovers would be contained, and crises would not happen. I strongly believe that the “putting-your-house-in-order” concept is not sufficient in today’s globalised economy.