Global Development: A Cold War History
In the Cold War, "development" was a catchphrase that came to signify progress, modernity, and economic growth. Development aid was closely aligned with the security concerns of the great powers, for whom infrastructure and development projects were ideological tools for conquering hearts and minds around the globe, from Europe and Africa to Asia and Latin America. In this sweeping and incisive book, Sara Lorenzini provides a global history of development, drawing on a wealth of archival evidence to offer a panoramic and multifaceted portrait of a Cold War phenomenon that transformed the modern world.

Taking readers from the aftermath of the Second World War to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, Lorenzini shows how development projects altered local realities, transnational interactions, and even ideas about development itself. She shines new light on the international organizations behind these projects—examining their strategies and priorities and assessing the actual results on the ground—and she also gives voice to the recipients of development aid. Lorenzini shows how the Cold War shaped the global ambitions of development on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and how international organizations promoted an unrealistically harmonious vision of development that did not reflect local and international differences.

An unparalleled journey into the political, intellectual, and economic history of the twentieth century, this book presents a global perspective on Cold War development, demonstrating how its impacts are still being felt today.

1130779440
Global Development: A Cold War History
In the Cold War, "development" was a catchphrase that came to signify progress, modernity, and economic growth. Development aid was closely aligned with the security concerns of the great powers, for whom infrastructure and development projects were ideological tools for conquering hearts and minds around the globe, from Europe and Africa to Asia and Latin America. In this sweeping and incisive book, Sara Lorenzini provides a global history of development, drawing on a wealth of archival evidence to offer a panoramic and multifaceted portrait of a Cold War phenomenon that transformed the modern world.

Taking readers from the aftermath of the Second World War to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, Lorenzini shows how development projects altered local realities, transnational interactions, and even ideas about development itself. She shines new light on the international organizations behind these projects—examining their strategies and priorities and assessing the actual results on the ground—and she also gives voice to the recipients of development aid. Lorenzini shows how the Cold War shaped the global ambitions of development on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and how international organizations promoted an unrealistically harmonious vision of development that did not reflect local and international differences.

An unparalleled journey into the political, intellectual, and economic history of the twentieth century, this book presents a global perspective on Cold War development, demonstrating how its impacts are still being felt today.

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Global Development: A Cold War History

Global Development: A Cold War History

by Sara Lorenzini
Global Development: A Cold War History

Global Development: A Cold War History

by Sara Lorenzini

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Overview

In the Cold War, "development" was a catchphrase that came to signify progress, modernity, and economic growth. Development aid was closely aligned with the security concerns of the great powers, for whom infrastructure and development projects were ideological tools for conquering hearts and minds around the globe, from Europe and Africa to Asia and Latin America. In this sweeping and incisive book, Sara Lorenzini provides a global history of development, drawing on a wealth of archival evidence to offer a panoramic and multifaceted portrait of a Cold War phenomenon that transformed the modern world.

Taking readers from the aftermath of the Second World War to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, Lorenzini shows how development projects altered local realities, transnational interactions, and even ideas about development itself. She shines new light on the international organizations behind these projects—examining their strategies and priorities and assessing the actual results on the ground—and she also gives voice to the recipients of development aid. Lorenzini shows how the Cold War shaped the global ambitions of development on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and how international organizations promoted an unrealistically harmonious vision of development that did not reflect local and international differences.

An unparalleled journey into the political, intellectual, and economic history of the twentieth century, this book presents a global perspective on Cold War development, demonstrating how its impacts are still being felt today.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691204802
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 07/26/2022
Series: America in the World , #30
Pages: 296
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sara Lorenzini is associate professor of international history in the School of International Studies at the University of Trento in Italy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 Development as an Ideology for Empire 9

The Civilizing Mission in the Interwar Years 10

Modernity and Authoritarian Rule 13

The Second World War 16

2 Truman's Dream: When the Cold War and Development Met 22

Point Four 26

Studying Backward Areas: Social Scientists, the Marshall Plan, and the Limits of the Cold War 29

3 Socialist Modernity and the Birth of the Third World 33

Ideology Put to the Test on the Colonial Question 34

The Age of Indifference 35

The Afterthought 38

The Age of Neutralism, or the Birth of the Third World 40

Khrushchev's Challenge 42

Features of Socialist Aid: Constructing the Ideological Framework 43

The Political Economy of Socialist Cooperation 45

4 Western Alternatives for Development in the Global Cold War 50

The Inevitability of Foreign Aid as a Cold War Tool? 52

Plans for Eurafrica 55

An Ideology for the Global Cold War: The Rise of Modernization Theory 60

The Kennedy Administration: A Turning Point? 64

5 The Limits of Bipolarity in the Golden Age of Modernization 68

The Cooperation Imperative in the West 69

Disappointments: The United States and Bickering in the DAC 71

Rostow and the Idea of Binding Rules 73

The European Economic Community Way 76

Coordination among Socialist Countries: The Permanent Commission for Technical Assistance in Comecon 81

Responding to External Challenges 85

6 International Organizations and Development as a Global Mission 89

Precedents: The League of Nations 90

Development as Profession after the Second World War 92

The World Bank 94

The United Nations and Development: The Place for an Alternative? 96

UNCTAD 101

Assessing Aid at the End of the First Development Decade 103

7 Multiple Modernities and Socialist Alternatives in the 1970s 107

The Soviet Union Reinterprets the Two Worlds Theory 107

Convergence and Interdependence 110

Third World Visions 112

China's Development Alternative 113

Self-Reliance? Tanzania between the Tazara Railway and Ujamaa 116

Third Worldism and the New International Economic Order 119

8 Resources, Environment and Development: The Difficult Nexus 124

The End of Technological Optimism? 125

Recasting the Problems of Modern Society 129

The Emergence of Global Environmentalism: Stockholm, 1972 133

Environment and Development as Seen from the East 137

The Legacy of Stockholm and the Invention of Sustainable Development 139

9 Responding to the Challenges from the Global South: North-South Dialogues 142

The Birth of Basic Needs in the Second Development Decade 143

The Lomé Revolution 145

A Regional Plan: The Euro-Arab Dialogue 148

North-South Dialogue: The Global Dimension 150

Development and Human Rights 154

10 The Dynamics of the Lost Decade 160

Conclusions 169

Notes 179

Bibliography 227

Index 263

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A unique achievement. Lorenzini brings together a wealth of recent historical studies on development and integrates them into a global narrative that is both lucid and comprehensive."—Nick Cullather, author of The Hungry World: America’s Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia

"Global Development makes a signal contribution to the history of development. It ranges across Cold War East-West divides and incorporates perspectives from the Global North and South. Informed, incisive, and broad-minded, the book will prove essential for scholars and especially students interested in understanding development, one of the key phenomena of the late twentieth century."—David C. Engerman, author of The Price of Aid: The Economic Cold War in India

"A succinct yet extremely rich and comprehensive history of development as a Cold War political and ideological project. This book is a must-read for those who want to understand the nature, contradictions, and changes of postwar international relations."—Mario Del Pero, Sciences Po, Paris

"Lorenzini unsettles our too complacent assumptions about which stories count and who mattered in the history of development during the Cold War. Historians of international organizations will find her deft depiction of the multilayered political landscape—with its intersecting national, international, and ideological ambitions—rewarding."—Glenda Sluga, author of Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism

"Destined to become a standard in the historical literature on development."—Odd Arne Westad, author of The Cold War: A World History

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