Overview

This 1976 volume originated in the mood of disillusion and despair which followed the Third United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Santiago in 1972. The prospects for cooperation between rich and poor nations seemed poor and new policies and instruments needed to considered if the interests of the rich and poor nations were not to become even more unbalanced in favour of the rich. The contributors to this volume consider what unexploited possibilities might be open to the less developed countries, both jointly and individually, in international affairs, which would generate a more equitable outcome. The issues addressed in these papers were, at the time of publication, of immediate relevance following the success of oil producing countries in revising prices, worldwide inflation, famine in the poorest countries, recession in industrial countries. Simultaneously, the less developed countries were declaring the need for a new international economic order, which this volume discusses.