Working for the World Economy; a personal history

Emile van Lennep (1915-1996) belonged to the postwar generation of internationally operating Dutch economists and politicians who rose to the top like Sicco Mansholt in the EEC, Joseph Luns at the NATO and Johan Vitteveen at the IMF. Born into a patrician Amsterdam family, he deliberately chose for a career in the public service. After starting with De Nederlandse Bank in 1945, he was an economic civil servant in Djakarta (Batavia) in the final phase of the decolonisation of Indonesia. As Treasurer-general from 1951, he actively participated in international monetary consultations and negotiations concerning the EEC and the OECD, and the problems of the pound and the dollar. For fifteen years he acted as OECD's Secretary-general, in the turbulent periodof the first and second energy crisis. His activities to strengthen Western economic cooperation included putting the environment on the international agenda, as well as formulating rules of conduct for multinational corporations and seeking agreement on exonomic policies after the breakdown of Kevliesian consenses. Van Lennep's experiences and his belief in a multilateral world order are highly relevant to present-day problems. His story and recommendations should be read by everyone interested in international developments since 1945, and sharing his concern about the prospects for the future.