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East-West-South—Economic interaction between three worlds
JOURNALOFCOMPARATIVE ECONOMICS7, 195-197 (1983)
T. SAUNDERS, Ed., East- West-South-Economic Interaction between Three Worlds. East-West European Economic Interaction Workshop Papers, Vol. 6. New York St. Martin’s Press, 1981. x + 382 pp., index. $35.00 hardcover.
CHRISTOPHER
Comprehensive cooperation among different groups of countries is a mushy subject at best, partly because coming to grips with global issues is a complex assignment, and partly, and perhaps more importantly, because the study of the behavior of governments, countries, and certainly regions or groups of countries is still in its infancy. This state of affairs gives rise to the following paradox: steady expansion of trade and economic cooperation between developed and developing countries entails unquestionable benefits for all, yet there is considerable opposition to adjusting existing economic structures to facilitate such intensification. The proposal for the New International Economic Order (NIEO) at the same time that the North-South dialogue for all practical purposes found itself in a serious impasse vividly illustrates this paradox. The above was the rationale for devoting the sixth Workshop on EastWest European Economic Interaction, organized in Dubrovnik in May, 1980, by the Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies, to “European Economic Relations and the Developing Countries.” The present volume collects, in 5 parts, 17 papers with comments and attempts to synthesize the discussions of 46 participants from East, West, South, and a number of international organizations. Following the editor’s summary of the Dubrovnik meeting, part I examines the background to the East-West-South dialogue in four papers, dealing with the industrial West’s point of view (Berthelot), the interests in (Paszynski) and prospects of the CMEA area’s cooperation (Dobozi and Inotai) with the developing countries, and the developing countries’ perspective on East-West relations (Fabinc). Various aspects of international finance are presented in the three papers of part II dealing with capital flows to the South (Bhaduri), direct private investments by transnationals in developing countries (Calcagno and Kiiakal), and the role of development-aid facilities (Seton). Part III is devoted to the transfer of technology to developing countries. The questions of appropriate technology (Haustein and Maier) and adaptation of R & D to the specific needs of developing countries (Haselbach) are investigated in a broad framework. 195
0147-5967183
$3.00
Copyright 0 1983 by Academic Press. Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
196
BOOK
REVIEWS
By far the bulk of the volume is devoted to ways of improving the international division of labor. Part IV encompasses seven papers on the development strategy of the NIEO (Streeten), the position of the socialist countries in the shaping of a new economic order (Bogomolov), the purpose and significance of global negotiations for the implementation of the NIEO (Jankowitsch), trade patterns of the three broad country groups (Ohlin), structural adjustment policies in industrial countries (Donges), development strategies and the role of tripartite cooperation (Zevin), and the relative role of wealth redistribution and structural adjustment in reshaping the world economy (Szentes). The ‘volume concludes with a paper (by Gutman) on industrial cooperation and its contribution to development efforts of the Third World. Considering that the volume collects 18 papers and discussion summaries, it is not at all surprising that there is great diversity and that not all topics are examined with equal depth. Furthermore, since the overall topic itself is so general and the various contributors apparently had only minimal guidelines on how to treat the assigned topics, there is inevitably a good deal of overlap and elementary discourse on development that could have been handled more economically if a common framework of analysis had been agreed upon. Such a set of guidelines would also have furthered the realization of the workshop’s purposes (p. 1). The reader will benefit from a careful study of the summary chapter, which may also act as a guide towards selective reading of individual papers. This reviewer found Streeten’s paper to be a challenging attempt towards clarifying the NIEO’s rationale. Contributions by participants from the socialist countries were generally disappointing inasmuch as they generally restate their countries’ official positions in international fora on restructuring. The volume also contains a number of points that appear to be far more important than the space allocated to them suggests. For example, Paszynski notes that exports of manufactures to socialist countries from the developing world depend crucially on the former initiating wide-ranging structural changes (p. 89), but no attempt is made to point out the directions and likelihood of such alterations; if the OPEC countries are to play a more active role in polarizing development efforts (p. 10 1), one needs to explain why these countries have so far availed themselves mainly of already existing aid channels; if Hungary attained the internationally agreed-upon aid target (p. 160) it would have been useful to furnish empirical evidence thereof; both Streeten (p. 240) and Szentes (p. 304) call for the creation of international institutions with a firm backbone to guarantee national sovereignty and to provide international public goods, but no attempt is made to deal with the necessary transfer of sovereign power upon which the clout of international organizations is conditioned; if low Soviet oil prices were indeed crucial in the creation of OPEC (p. 27 1), an explanation would have been helpful. Finally,
BOOK REVIEWS
191
while the editor has on the whole done a commendable job in presenting the many papers in literate English, there are several instances where a bit more care would have eliminated awkward phrasings and an inordinate amount of printing errors. Considering the exceedingly wide range of topics on international relations covered, the volume contains something for a wide diversity of potential readers. Selective browsing is recommended. JOZEF M. VANBRABANT United Nations New York. New York 10017
T. SAUNDERS, Ed., East- West-South-Economic Interaction between Three Worlds. East-West European Economic Interaction Workshop Papers, Vol. 6. New York St. Martin’s Press, 1981. x + 382 pp., index. $35.00 hardcover.
CHRISTOPHER
Comprehensive cooperation among different groups of countries is a mushy subject at best, partly because coming to grips with global issues is a complex assignment, and partly, and perhaps more importantly, because the study of the behavior of governments, countries, and certainly regions or groups of countries is still in its infancy. This state of affairs gives rise to the following paradox: steady expansion of trade and economic cooperation between developed and developing countries entails unquestionable benefits for all, yet there is considerable opposition to adjusting existing economic structures to facilitate such intensification. The proposal for the New International Economic Order (NIEO) at the same time that the North-South dialogue for all practical purposes found itself in a serious impasse vividly illustrates this paradox. The above was the rationale for devoting the sixth Workshop on EastWest European Economic Interaction, organized in Dubrovnik in May, 1980, by the Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies, to “European Economic Relations and the Developing Countries.” The present volume collects, in 5 parts, 17 papers with comments and attempts to synthesize the discussions of 46 participants from East, West, South, and a number of international organizations. Following the editor’s summary of the Dubrovnik meeting, part I examines the background to the East-West-South dialogue in four papers, dealing with the industrial West’s point of view (Berthelot), the interests in (Paszynski) and prospects of the CMEA area’s cooperation (Dobozi and Inotai) with the developing countries, and the developing countries’ perspective on East-West relations (Fabinc). Various aspects of international finance are presented in the three papers of part II dealing with capital flows to the South (Bhaduri), direct private investments by transnationals in developing countries (Calcagno and Kiiakal), and the role of development-aid facilities (Seton). Part III is devoted to the transfer of technology to developing countries. The questions of appropriate technology (Haustein and Maier) and adaptation of R & D to the specific needs of developing countries (Haselbach) are investigated in a broad framework. 195
0147-5967183
$3.00
Copyright 0 1983 by Academic Press. Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
196
BOOK
REVIEWS
By far the bulk of the volume is devoted to ways of improving the international division of labor. Part IV encompasses seven papers on the development strategy of the NIEO (Streeten), the position of the socialist countries in the shaping of a new economic order (Bogomolov), the purpose and significance of global negotiations for the implementation of the NIEO (Jankowitsch), trade patterns of the three broad country groups (Ohlin), structural adjustment policies in industrial countries (Donges), development strategies and the role of tripartite cooperation (Zevin), and the relative role of wealth redistribution and structural adjustment in reshaping the world economy (Szentes). The ‘volume concludes with a paper (by Gutman) on industrial cooperation and its contribution to development efforts of the Third World. Considering that the volume collects 18 papers and discussion summaries, it is not at all surprising that there is great diversity and that not all topics are examined with equal depth. Furthermore, since the overall topic itself is so general and the various contributors apparently had only minimal guidelines on how to treat the assigned topics, there is inevitably a good deal of overlap and elementary discourse on development that could have been handled more economically if a common framework of analysis had been agreed upon. Such a set of guidelines would also have furthered the realization of the workshop’s purposes (p. 1). The reader will benefit from a careful study of the summary chapter, which may also act as a guide towards selective reading of individual papers. This reviewer found Streeten’s paper to be a challenging attempt towards clarifying the NIEO’s rationale. Contributions by participants from the socialist countries were generally disappointing inasmuch as they generally restate their countries’ official positions in international fora on restructuring. The volume also contains a number of points that appear to be far more important than the space allocated to them suggests. For example, Paszynski notes that exports of manufactures to socialist countries from the developing world depend crucially on the former initiating wide-ranging structural changes (p. 89), but no attempt is made to point out the directions and likelihood of such alterations; if the OPEC countries are to play a more active role in polarizing development efforts (p. 10 1), one needs to explain why these countries have so far availed themselves mainly of already existing aid channels; if Hungary attained the internationally agreed-upon aid target (p. 160) it would have been useful to furnish empirical evidence thereof; both Streeten (p. 240) and Szentes (p. 304) call for the creation of international institutions with a firm backbone to guarantee national sovereignty and to provide international public goods, but no attempt is made to deal with the necessary transfer of sovereign power upon which the clout of international organizations is conditioned; if low Soviet oil prices were indeed crucial in the creation of OPEC (p. 27 1), an explanation would have been helpful. Finally,
BOOK REVIEWS
191
while the editor has on the whole done a commendable job in presenting the many papers in literate English, there are several instances where a bit more care would have eliminated awkward phrasings and an inordinate amount of printing errors. Considering the exceedingly wide range of topics on international relations covered, the volume contains something for a wide diversity of potential readers. Selective browsing is recommended. JOZEF M. VANBRABANT United Nations New York. New York 10017