In this survey of the field of international development policies, Sidney Dell challenges conventional wisdom and provides a rationale for a more cooperative and constructive approach to world development. Assessing the management of the global economy by the major economic powers and the policies that caused the world economy to lose momentum in the 1970s and 1980s, Dell directs his study to industrial countries which must, he claims, take responsibility for creating an environment favorable to Third World development.
Tracing the fundamental changes of the last forty years in international development policies toward the Third World, Dell details the transformation from a policy of collective responsibility on the part of the international community to the current status, in which the commitment of governments of industrial countries to Third World development is greatly diluted. He examines the growing conflicts in world trade and analyzes the failure of the international economic community to develop a long-run strategy for dealing with the world debt crisis.
Other topics addressed include the future of the international monetary system, the viability of small countries, strategies for development of basic needs, and the prospects for foreign private investment.