Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 09/2013

The Sovereign Debt Forum: Expanding Our Tool Kit for Handling Sovereign Crises

Richard Gitlin Brett House

August 2013

Centre for International Governance Innovation

Abstract

This policy brief proposes the creation of a sovereign debt forum (SDF) to address the lack of a simple and effective mechanism for dealing with sovereign debt crises by laying out the following: a small set of principles that ought to inform any efforts to enhance the international financial architecture’s capacity to handle sovereign crises; the contours of a possible SDF; some processes by which an SDF could operate; a broad sketch of the incentives for stakeholders to participate in the SDF’s operations; and some recommendations on possible next steps.