The special article by Alok Sheel presents the role of the Bretten Woods twins in tackling the problems of world economy in the past and discusses the new emerging markets which are putting in alternative financial institutions today. The article points out that the Bretton Woods institutions appear to have been unable to re -structure themselves to the vast changes in the global political economy. It says that emerging markets are endeavoring to put in place the alternative institutions to intermediate their own excessive savings, such as the Chiang Mai initiative, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in East Asia, the New Development Bank and the Contingency Reserve Arrangement of the BRICS. In this scenario it asks whether the rising economic powers can achieve the geopolitical cooperation necessary to collaborate in the manner the US and Europe did in the post war period.