Includes bibliographical references (pages 606-651) and index.

Emerging from war -- The road to Bretton Woods -- Crumbling empires -- From reconstruction to development -- India and the allure of planning -- Latin America and import substitution -- Cold War fault lines -- To develop, modernise! -- The population bomb, famine and the Green Revolution -- Resource limits, resource booms, resource crises -- Radicals, revolutionaries and utopians -- Enter the free market -- Turmoil, transition and flux -- The faltering continent -- Lurching towards disaster -- The soaring flying geese -- The giant awakens -- Globalisation ascendant -- The short decade -- Fragmentations and intractability -- The aurthoitarian option -- The chasm -- Annexe: UN Millennium Development Goals (2000).

"Over the past two decades, experiments in neoliberal economics have opened up a chasm of inequality between the Global South and the West. Development advice from richer nations has led to social upheaval, political unrest, environmental degradation--and even the creation of a new underclass. Brutal extremes of wealth and poverty are now commonplace. Ali A. Allawi traces the evolution of the world economic order from the late imperial era to the present day. Shedding light on continuing controversies, Allawi shows how the process of development has been hindered at every turn, from poor leadership and lost opportunities to widespread corruption. In doing so, he argues that the current neoliberal consensus is only the most recent of a series of failed policy imperatives. Covering issues in the Global South as well as failures in the West, this definitive account offers an impassioned and authoritative call for change"-- Provided by publisher.