Westfailure is a term coined in 1999 by the academic Susan Strange

Susan Strange

Susan Strange was a British academic who was influential in the field of International Political Economy. Her most important publications include Casino Capitalism, Mad Money, States and Markets and The Retreat of the State : The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy.For a quarter of a century,...

in a posthumous article titled The Westfailure System. The term is a portmanteau (West + failure) and is a pun on the Westphalia system the term for the system of nation states that has existed since the Treaty of Westphalia. The article argues that the system of nation states had failed to control global financial markets in light of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.