Global Adjustment: Implications for peripheral states

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 1994, Pages 319-336

  Ould Mey, Mohameden ^a  

^a University of Nouakchott El Asriya   (Mauritania)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEVELOPING COUNTRY; ECONOMIC POLICY; POLICY PURPOSE; STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT; WESTERN CONCEPT;

MAURITANIA;

EID: 0028569826     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436599408420382     Document Type: Article

References (71)

1. The terms ‘Third World’, ‘South’, ‘periphery’, etc used here refer to all countries of the world except the USA, Canada, European countries, the former Soviet Union, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
2. These are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA.
3. Following the 1982 G-7 Summit, Mexico declared that it could not continue to service its debt as originally contracted.
4. A. Mahjoub (ed), Adjustment or Delinking? The African Experience, London: Zed Books, 1990.
5. UN/ECA, African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment Programmes for Socio-economic Recovery and Transformation (AAF-SAP), New Yoirk and Addis Ababa, 1989, p 16; US Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Structural Adjustment in Africa. Report of a Staff Study Mission to Great Britain, Ghana, Senegal, Cote d'lvoire and France, 29/11-20/12, 1988, Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC, 1989, p 2; and World Bank, ‘SAPS, Mauritania, Completion Report, 1/12, 1990’, para 71; and O Ong'wen, ‘Another “lost decade” for Africa?’, World Press Review, 40, May 1993, p 41.
6. Edward V. K. Jaycox, Vice-President, Africa Region, World Bank, interviewed by M Novicki, Africa Report, 32(6), 1987, p 32.
7. See D Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1989; and A Lipietz, Mirages and Miracles: The Crisis of Global Fordism, London: Verso, 1987.
8. This contradiction goes back to the 16th century when the contemporary systems of states began to evolve within the framework of ‘a European core and a non-European penumbra’ (see M Wight, Systems of States, London: Leicester University Press, 1977, p 151). It is reflected in the always latent conflict of interpretation between Modernization and Dependency theses. The end of the Cold War did not bring an end to the North-South contradiction. The UN General Secretary noted that despite improved East-West relations, North-South issues grow more acute (see B Boutros-Ghali, An Agenda for Peace, New York: United Nations, 1992, p 5).
9. A. Lipietz, ‘Towards global Fordism’, New Left Review, 132, March-April 1982, p 34.
10. A. Lipietz, ‘How monetarism has shocked the Third World industrialisation’, New Left Review, 145, 1984, pp 71-87.
11. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 1993, p 42.
12. U. Kirdar, ‘Antalya statement’, in Uner Kirdar (ed), Change: Threat or Opportunity for Human Progress?, Vol 1, New York: UN, 1992, pp 8-61, p20; A Sawyer, ‘Les politiques d'ajustement’. Report on the conference Internationale sur le facteur humain dans le redressement economique et Ie deVeloppement de l'Afrique, Khartoum, Sudan, 5-8 March 1988, ECA/ICHD/88/29, p3; and World Bank, ‘Memorandum economique, RIM, juillet 1985’, p 101; and Rapport Annuel 1991, p 118.
13. Industrialised countries’ preoccupation with Third World protectionism was reflected in a major World Bank-sponsored research project on the structure of protection in the Third World. See B Balassa et al, The Structure of Protection in Developing Countries, Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1971.
14. Other Third World cartels include: Union of Banana Exporting Countries, Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries, Intergovernmental Council of Copper Producing Countries, International Bauxite Association and Cafe Mondiale.
15. UN Document A/AC. 166L.48: ‘Programme of action on the establishment of a New International Economic Order’ and UN Document A/RES/3200 (S-VI)-3202 (S-VI): ‘Resolutions of UN General Assembly, sixth special session’.
16. B. Bluestone & B Harrison, The Deindustrialisation of America, New York: Basic Books, 1982, p 42.
17. Lipietz, A Towards a New Economic Order: Postfordism, Ecology and Democracy, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992, p 19, attributes the crisis to a fall in profits and a drop in demand. Others emphasise the rise of oil prices.
18. See US Department of State, Bulletin, 1902, 8 December 1975, pp 805-807; US General Services Administration, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, 13(11), 1977, p 322; P Hajnal (ed), The Seven-Power Summit: Documents from the Summits of Industrialized Countries 1975-1989, New York: Kraus International, 1989, pxxv; and the London Declaration of the G-7, in US Department of State, Bulletin, 1980 (6), June 1977, pp 583-86.
19. The World Bank, World Development Report, 1979, August 1979, p 3.
20. US Department of State, Bulletin, 2041, August 1980, p 1 1.
21. M. Ainley, The General Arrangement to Borrow, Pamphlet Series No 4 1, IMF, Washington, DC, 1984, p 41.
22. D. Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1989, p 170.
23. See US Congress, Foreign Assistance and Related Programs Appropriations for 1984, hearing before a Subcommittee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Ninety-Eight Congress, 1983, GPO, Washington, DC; S Corbridge, Debt and Development, Oxford,: Blackwell, 1993, p 6 3 ; US Congress, House Quota Increase of the International Monetary Fund, Subcommittee on International Development, Finance, Trade and Monetary Policy, Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, One Hundred Second Congress, 10 July 1991, Washington, DC: GPO, p 6 7.
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25. US Department of State, Dispatch, 2(29), 22 July 1991, p 529.
26. R. Jackson, Quasi-States: Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Third World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, p 191.
27. US Department of State, Bulletin, 2137, August 1988, pp 49-52.
28. E. Berg, ‘The World Bank's strategy’, in J Ravenhill (ed), Africa in Economic Crisis, New York: Colombia University Press, 1986, pp 4 5-5 9, p 58; R Green & C Allison, 1986 ‘The World Bank's agenda for accelerated development: dialectics, doubts and dialogues’, in Ravenhill op cit pp 6 0-8 4, p 80; and World Bank, Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Agenda for Action, 1981, p p 4, 132, 133. 2 9 S e e (respectively). The World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa: From Crisis to Sustainable Growth, 1989, p 14; M Watts, ‘Development I, Progress in Human Geography, 17(2), 1993, pp 257-72, p 267; C Payer, T h e IMF and India’, in K Havnevik (ed), The IMF and the World Bank in Africa, Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1987, pp 6 5-8 3, p 6 7.
29. G. Murphy & E Angelli, ‘International institutions, decolonisation, and development’, International Political Science Review, 14(1), 1993, pp 71-85, p 81.
30. W. Ramsay, ‘Oil in the 1990s: the Gulf dominant’, in Phebe Marr & William Lewis (eds), Riding the Tiger: The Middle East Challenge After the Cold War, Boulder, CO: Westview, 1993, pp 39-60, p 5 1.
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32. R. Falk, ‘In search of a New World Model’, Current History, 92(573), 1993, pp 145-149, p 146.
33. The USA feverishly implemented all Security Council resolutions against Iraq while its Israeli ally continues to defy 66 Security Council resolutions. The USA did not allow the IFN to be involved in the current Arab-Israeli peace process and did allow genocide against Muslims in Europe.
34. J. Anderson, ‘Bankruptcy America’, in US Congress, Economic Adjustment After the Cold War, Joint Economic Committee, 12 and 19 December 1989 and 20 March 1990, Washington DC: GPO, pp 272-290, pp 283, 288.
35. Nixon's speech on American-Japanese relations broadcast by C-SPAN on 25 April 1993.
36. L. Berman & B Jentleson, ‘Bush and the post-Cold-War world’, in S Campbell & B Rockman (eds), The Bush Presidency First Appraisal, Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1989, pp 93-128, p 98.
37. Newsweek, 11 March 1991, p 3 0.
38. Lipietz, op cit, note 17, pp 172, 178.
39. The New York Times, 8 September 1992.
40. B. Clinton, ‘A democrat lays out his p l a n, Harvard International Review, Summer 1992, pp 2 6-8, 6 2-4, p 63.
41. The Financial Times, 18 July 1991.
42. The Wall Street Journal, 16 April 1993.
43. Robert Reich, US Secretary of Labour, speaking to National Press Club on 12 October 1993.
44. Andrei Kortunov, quoted in Benjamin S Lambeth, Desert Storm and Its Meaning: The View from Moscow, a Project AIR FORCE Report prepared for the United States Air Force, RAND, 1992, p 3 8.
45. US Congress, House, Administration's Proposed Refugee Admission Program for Fiscal Year 1993, hearing before the Subcommittee of International Law, Immigration and Refugees, 30 July 1991, GPO, p 181; R King & S Oberg, ‘Introduction’, pp 1-4, p 3, and A Montary & A Cortese, ‘South to North migration in a Mediterranean perspective’, pp 212-233, p 229, both in Russel King (ed), Mass Migrations in Europe, London: Belhaven Press.
46. In 1992, Italy's GDP was $200 billion greater than the combined GDP of the entire Arab world, Iran, Turkey and Israel. See US Central Intelligence Agency, ‘Vital statistics’ World Factbook, 1993.
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48. Quoted by D Volman, ‘Africa and the New World Order’, The Journal of Modern African Studies, 31(1), 1993, pp 1-30.
49. B. Clinton, op cit, note 4 1, pp 26-27.
50. Falk, op cit, note 33, pp 145-6.
51. D. Isenberg, ‘Desert Storm redux?’, Middle East Journal, 47,(3), Summer 1993, pp 429-443, p 436.
52. N. Chomsky, Year 501: The Conquest Continues, Boston, MA: South End Press, 1993, p 3.
53. R. Abdoun, 1990 ‘Algeria: the problem of nation-building’, in Mahjoub, op cit, note 4, pp 14-48, p 4 3.
54. Jackson op cit, note 26.
55. R. Cox, ‘Towards a post-hegemonic conceptualisation of world order’, in J. N. Rosenau & Ernst-Otto Czempiel (eds), Governance without Government, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp 132-159, p 143-4.
56. S. Amin, Delinking, London: Zed Books, 1990.
57. L. Emmerij ‘The future of development research in the OECD Development Center’, in L Emmery (ed), Development Policies and the Crisis of the 1980s, Paris: OECD, 1987, p 14.
58. M. Aglietta, ‘World capitalism in the eighties’. New Left Review, 136, 1982, pp 5-41, p 5.
59. Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) stated in the Muqaddima that ‘Differences of condition among people are the result of the different ways in which they make their living’ and he was probably the first thinker to discern the relationship between politico/military history and social/economical evolution. Marx's historical materialism seems congruent with these two aspects of Ibn Khaldun's thought. Both Ibn Khaldun and Marx set forth a conception of historical change based on dialectical conflict. See Y Lacoste, Ibn Khaldun: The Birth of History and the Past of the Third World, London: Verso, 1984, p 153. Based on an extensive analysis of the Muqaddima, Lacoste portrayed Ibn Khaldun as a precursor of historical materialism. See also F Baali, Society, State, and Urbanism: Ibn Khaldun's Sociological Thought, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1988, p 142. Baali noted that H Simon stated (in Ibn Khalduns Wissenschaft von der Menschlichen Kultur, Leipzig, 1959) that the French translation of Ibn Khaldun's work, in the 1860s, could very well have reached Engels and Marx who were interested in new objective and systematic publications.
60. C. Chase-Dunn, ‘World-state formation: historical process and emergent necessity’. Political Geography Quarterly, 9(2), 1990, pp 108-30, p 120.
61. R. B. J Waker State Sovereignty, Global Civilisation, and the Rearticulation of Space, World Order Studies Program, Occasional Paper no 18, Center of International Studies, Princeton University, 1988, p 42.
62. G. Helman & S Ratner, ‘Saving failed states’, Foreign Policy, 89, Winter 1992-3, pp 3-20. I would like to thank Professor John Agnew (Syracuse University) for bringing this article to my attention.
63. M. Miyoshi, ‘A borderless world? from colonialism to transnationalism and t he decline of the nation-state’, Critical Inquiry, 19, Summer 1993, pp 7 2 6-5 1.
64. See Vladmir Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, New York: International Publishers, 1969; and Herb Addo Imperialism: The Permanent Stage of Capitalism, Tokyo: The United Nations University, 1986.
65. Bilan d'exécution du PREF 1985-8, p 17-37; Fourth PFP 1992-5, Table 2.
66. See Malainine Ould Mohamed Lemine, ‘The Impact of NGOS on development in Mauritania: the Lutheran Federation as an example”, unpublished thesis (in Arabic), Department of Geography, University de Nouakchott, Mauritania, 1992; and Bulletin d'Information Inter-ONG, January 1990.
67. United Nations, World Economic Survey 1991/2: A Reader, New York: UN, 1991, p 8; A Papic, ‘Net transfer of financial resources from the South’, South Letter, 11, September 1991, The South Centre, the Fellow-up Office of the South Commission, p 10; Ben Turok, Introduction pp 1-13 and H Campbell, ‘Restructuring the World Economy”, pp 17-39, in Ben Turok (ed), Alternative Strategies for Africa: Debt and Democracy, Volume 3, London: Institute for African Alternatives, 1991; U Kirdar, op cit, note 12, p 20; and L Rojas-Suarez, ‘Risk and capital flight in developing countries’, in Determinants and Systematic Consequences of International Capital Flows, Washington, DC: IMF, Occasional Paper no 77, March 1991, pp 83-92, p 83-84.
68. S. Sideri, ‘Restructuring the post-Cold War world economy’, Development and Change, 24, 1993, pp 7-27, P 1 9 0 B Ca’ mpbell & J Loxley, (eds), Structural Adjustment in Africa, New York: St. Ma r t in’ s Press, 1989, p 6.
69. K. Dadzie, ‘The outlook for development in the 1990s’, in Uner Kirdar, (ed). Change: Threat or Opportunity for Human Progress?, Volume 2: Economic Change, New York: United Nations, 1992, pp 3 2-7 2, p 7 1.
70. IDA President Report no p-5293-MAU, 30 May 1990, para 18.
71. Mustapha Ould Abeidrrahmane quoted in The Courier, 137, 1 January 1993, pp 17-42, p 27.