Rich World, Poor World - The Struggle to Escape Poverty

A landmark history of the world economic order, exploring how developing countries have fought to escape impoverishmentOver 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.

Autorentext
Ali A. Allawi is research professor, National University of Singapore. He was appointed Iraq's first postwar civilian Minister of Defense in 2004 and in 2005 was appointed Minister of Finance. This is his third book. He lives in London and Baghdad.