Lessons of the Oil Crisis for the Third World

1975 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-522
Author(s):  
György Adam
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Third World ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
World Bank Group ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Oil Crisis ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Bank Group ◽  
The Third World

The author argues that the so-called oil crisis may open out a new perspective on development aid to the Third World if the oil-producing countries, instead of allowing the giant Western banks and corporations to make a grab for their petro dollars (as the Western nations had so far made a grab for incredibly cheap oil energy), decide to pool the surplus oil revenues for self-help among the Third World countries. He suggests the setting up of an interregional Third World Bank, which, unlike the existing World Bank group (typecast as the instrument of the rich market economies), would be the instrument of the developing countries, thus breaking the monopoly of the West in international financing.

Multinational corporations and the Third World: the case of Japan and Southeast Asia

1976 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin B. Weinstein
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Third World ◽  
Private Investment ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Oil Embargo ◽  
The Third World

The dramatic transformation of the climate surrounding relations between rich and poor nations since the OPEC oil embargo in 1973 has raised new hopes that MNCs may be made to energize development in the Third World. Improved information about the vulnerability of the rich nations and about techniques for dealing with MNCs, some writers argue, will enable underdeveloped countries to ensure that foreign investment serves as an “engine of development.” This view exaggerates the strengths of Third World states. A lack of information about opportunities and techniques is a small part of the burden which underdevelopment imposes on poor countries in their dealings with MNCs. A case study of Japanese MNCs in Southeast Asia raises doubts concerning the likelihood that the poor countries will be able to harness MNCs for their development. Southeast Asia's growing dependence on Japan in the fields of trade, official development aid, and private investment tends to impose constraints on efforts to influence the behavior of MNCs. A more basic problem resides in the “softness” of underdeveloped states, which renders ineffectual regulations intended to control MNCs. Because MNCs in certain important respects inhibit the process of building viable indigenous institutions and even contribute to the perpetuation of soft states, they may do more to impede than to stimulate development, at least in the softer Third World states. It may well be that more serious attention should be paid to studies of how Third World states might develop if the role of MNCs were circumscribed.

Amiya Kumar Bagchi. The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. London: Cambridge University Press. 1982. Reprint 1983. pp.viii+276. List of books for further reading; Index. Price: £ 8.50 (paperback edition).

1985 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
Zia Ul Haq
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Third World ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Growth Strategies ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Third World

Amiya Kumar Bagchi, an eminent economist of the modern Cambridge tradition, has produced a timely treatise, in a condensed form, on the development problems of the Third World countries. The author's general thesis is that economic development in the developing societies necessarily requires a radical transformation in the economic, social and political structures. As economic development is actually a social process, economic growth should not be narrowly defined as the growth of the stock of rich capitalists. Neither can their savings be equated to capital formation whose impact on income will presumably 'trickle down' to the working classes. Economic growth strategies must not aim at creating rich elites, because, according to the author, "maximizing the surplus in the hands of the rich in the Third World is not, however, necessarily a way of maximizing the rate of growth".

scholarly journals Abrupt Climate Chang: Time Is Tight

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lane
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Third World ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
The Third ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Global Coordination ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Rich Countries

The new theme of abrupt climate change (“Hawking tipping point”) must be taken up by global coordination – the UNFCCC, IPCC and the G20. The only policy response is to reinforce the COP21 project, and start managing its quick implementation of decarbonisation. A more decisive climate change policy – no coal or charcoal, solar power parks, and possibly carbon capture – may not guarantee the goal of + 2 degrees Celsius, but it may help avoid climate chaos. Only global coordination can break through the resistance of markets in the rich countries and governments in the Third World together with vibrant civil society. The large COP21 Secretariat must become a management agency for rapid decarbonisation with support from other global bodies (WB, IMF) and the G20.

The Deterioration of the Food Situation in the Third World and the Capitalist System

1981 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-262
Author(s):  
Ernest Feder
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Third World ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Staple Foods ◽  
The Third World

Hunger and malnutrition are today associated with the capitalist system. The evidence points to a further deterioration of the food situation in the Third World in the foreseeable future, as a result of massive capital and technology transfers from the rich capitalist countries to the underdeveloped agricultures operated by transnational concerns or private investors, with the active support of development assistance agencies such as the World Bank. Contrary to the superficial predictions of the World Bank, for example, poverty is bound to increase and the purchasing power of the masses must decline. Particular attention must be paid to the supply of staple foods and the proletariat. This is threatened by a variety of factors, attributable to the operation of the capitalist system. Among them are the senseless waste of Third World resources caused by the foreign investors' insatiable thirst for the quick repatriation of super-profits and the increasing orientation of Third World agricultures toward high-value or export crops (which are usually the same), an orientation which is imposed upon them by the industrial countries' agricultural development strategies. Even self-sufficiency programs for more staple foods, such as the ill-reputed Green Revolution, predictably cannot be of long duration.

The Trade War With Japan

Worldview ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 22 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 23-27
Author(s):  
Jon Woronoff
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Middle East ◽  
European Community ◽  
Third World ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
The Third ◽  
Trade War ◽  
Asean Countries ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Voluntary Restraint

The Japan-America trade war, which our authorities are pressing on many fronts, is only part of a much broader offensive. There are skirmishes or battles going on all around the globe. The European Community claps restrictions or imposes “voluntary” restraint. Australia and New Zealand pound on the table and make threats. The ASEAN countries hint that it will be hard to cooperate while they suffer negative trade balances. The Third World countries whine that they would appreciate more Japanese development aid. And the Arab nations roar that Japan will go energy hungry if it doesn't help them build up their industry (and reverse its earlier policy on the Middle East).

Environmental characteristics and organizational ideology: UNCTAD—the lessons of 1964

1978 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-160
Author(s):  
Javed A. Ansari
Keyword(s):  
Third World ◽  
Commodity Prices ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Negotiated Settlement ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Rich Countries

THE United Nations Conference on Trade and Development came nto existence in 1964. Its creation was viewed with a degree of cautious enthusiasm by the Third World and with a certain amount of apprehension by the rich countries. Its performance has dampened the enthusiasm and heightened the apprehension. Its contribution to substantive changes in trade policies has not been spectacular. Whatever improvement in commodity prices and hence in the terms of trade of the poor countries that occurred in the early 1970s was attributable to fortuitous circumstances – not to a negotiated settlement between the rich and poor countries, enabling the latter to retain a larger portion of the gains from trade. Can we3 therefore3 say that UNGTAD has been ineffective? That it has failed to perform its global task? And if so, what is the cause of this failure? Is the organizational ideology unsuitable in the sense that it is not representative of the national objectives of viable coalitions among UNGTAD constituents? Or has the leadership failed to evolve a strategy which links the pursuit of specific sub-goals to the transformation of the system in accordance with the organizational ideology? This present paper attempts to look at the first question and to venture an opinion on the effectiveness of UNGTAD in the light of these findings.

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