Power, Ideology and Global Development: On the Origins, Evolution and Achievements of UNCTAD
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: ABSTRACT UNCTAD was created in 1964 as a forum for strategic thinking about international trade and development issues and for identifying mutually beneficial opportunities for policy coordination and international cooperation with the participation of both developing and industrialized countries. The history of UNCTAD, with its successes and failures, therefore, is closely intertwined with the history of ideas on trade and development and the interplay of political power and ideological manipulation in international trade and development policy making. This article focuses on the intellectual traditions in economics which underpinned the formation of UNCTAD and examines the way in which such intellectual traditions have informed — both in method and substance — the subsequent thinking and research output by the institution and helped define its objectives. It compares UNCTAD's methods and research output on a number of international development issues with the positions taken by other international institutions. These findings are used to reflect on the ideological element in development economics thinking.
Source: Development and Change
DOI: 10.1111/dech.12239
Author: Massoud Karshenas
Institution: SOAS University of London
Language: English
Subfield: Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2409598426