One Currency for Bosnia

**THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.**

What is the role of the central bank and sound monetary policy in the process of nation-building? How should the international community respond to the economic challenges of failed states? Is it possible to rebuild the economies of societies devastated by war? Please join the New America Foundation for a fascinating discussion with one of the world’s leading authorities on monetary policy, Dr. Warren Coats.

Dr. Coats is an advisor to the central banks of Afghanistan, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Libya. A former assistant professor and assistant chairman of the University of Virginia’s Department of Economics, Dr. Coats, during his long career with the International Monetary Fund, led technical assistance missions to the central banks of many countries including Bangladesh, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Nigeria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In his new book One Currency for Bosnia: Creating the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dr. Coats tells the fascinating story of the establishment of the most successful state institution in that war-torn country, from his insider’s perspective as someone who helped to make the history that he describes.

Copies of One Currency for Bosnia will be available for purchase at the end of the event.

Here is what leading authorities are saying about One Currency for Bosnia:

Robert Mundell, 1999 Nobel Prize in Economics
Warren Coats's well-told account of the establisment of a currency board in war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina is fascinating and insightful reading.

Carl Bildt, Former High Representative of the UN in Bosnia, Former Prime Minister of Sweden, Current Foreign Minister of Sweden
The democratization process in Bosnia was one of the most exciting periods of my life, and in the lives of all the courageous people who were involved. The history deserves to be told over and over again...Now, Dr. Coats has taken the trouble to recall his own fascinating experience with the establishment of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His account is an invaluable contribution to the never ending story of the Balkans.

Serge Robert, First Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina
This excellent book written by Warren Coats about the creation of the new Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina is well worth reading. The author meticulously relates various aspects of history, monetary policy, and human behavior in a clear, lively, humorous, and enthralling style. The book reports how, after a grueling war, some men--still impregnated with rancor and distrust--bridled their own resentment, and worked together to build a monetary institution vital to their common future. Warren, with a great IMF team, played a major role in encouraging mutual understanding and co-operation. Today, on the eve of its tenth anniversary, the Central Bank has proved to be a real success. Warren Coats's book will be an appropriate gift to makr such an event.

Participants

• Warren Coats
  Advisor, Central Banks of Afghanistan, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Libya
  Author, One Currency for Bosnia
• Michael Lind
  Whitehead Senior Fellow
  New America Foundation