Losing the Global Development War: A Contemporary Critique of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO by John W. Head

Foreword and Synopsis     xi
Acknowledgments     xix
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms     xxi
Notes on Spellings, Usages, and Other Conventions     xxiii
The Fourth World War     1
Antecedents to the Global Development War     2
World War I     2
Self-Determination     2
Presumptions Upended     3
World War II     4
Global Economic Issues Break the Political Surface     4
Human Rights Rumblings     5
International Law and International Organizations     6
The Cold War     7
A Bold Experiment     8
Economic Assistance and Ideological Influence     9
A Giant with Nightmares     10
The Nature of the Global Development War     12
Conflicting Development Ideologies     13
Development     13
Human Development     15
Liberal or Orthodox?     16
Intelligent or Ill-Conceived?     23
Participatory or Authoritarian?     25
Multilateral, Bilateral, or Regional?     26
Sustainable or Improvident?     27
Summary     28
Why the War Matters     29
Despair, Danger, and Development     29
Terrorism: Predictable Consequence or Parallel Conflict?     42
The Machinery and Theaters of War     44
The Political and Institutional Topography     44
The Global Economic Organizations     46
A Cacophony of Criticisms-Attacking the Global Economic Organizations     49
A World of Problems     50
Growing Economic Distress     50
Globalization as Culprit?     52
Cataloguing the Criticisms     54
Criticisms by Types of GEOs     54
The Logic of Disaggregation     54
The Twenty-Three Criticisms     54
The Eight Clusters of Complaints     58
Representative Survey of Literature Criticizing the GEOs     63
What Are the Global Economic Organizations?     91
Historical Survey     92
Highlights in the GEO Timeline     93
The Inter-War Period and Bretton Woods     96
Before 1944     96
Three Proposed Solutions     98
The First Twenty-Five Years: From 1945 to 1970     100
The Second Twenty-Five Years: From 1970 to the mid-1990s     102
Reacting to Change     102
Whither the Nation-State?      102
The Contemporary World of the GEOs     104
The IMF in a Nutshell     105
The Grand Design and Its Collapse     105
Establishment of the IMF and the Par Value System     105
Collapse of the Par Value System and a Redirected IMF     106
IMF Financing and Resources     107
IMF Financing Facilities     107
IMF Conditionality     110
IMF Resources for Lending     111
Other IMF Operations     112
Surveillance     112
Technical Assistance     112
Special Policy Endorsement     113
Governance and Other Institutional Matters     113
IMF Structure and the Weighted Voting System     113
Membership; Obligations; Privileges and Immunities     114
Funding the IMF's Operational Expenses     115
Debt Relief     116
The World Bank and the Regional MDBs in a Nutshell     117
MDB Lending Operations     118
Project Financing     118
Policy-Based Lending     119
Lending Terms     120
Procurement     120
Technical Assistance and Other Operations     121
Resources and Other Financial Matters      123
More on the Distinction Between Hard Loans and Soft Loans     123
MDB Capitalization, Borrowings, and Replenishments     124
Membership and Institutional Matters     127
Membership in the MDBs     127
Structure of and Decision Making in the MDBs     129
Other Aspects of MDBs and Their Operations     131
Policies and Initiatives     131
The Generational Character of the MDBs     131
Debt Relief     134
The WTO in a Nutshell     134
The GATT 1947     135
Aims and Principles     135
Exceptions to GATT Principles     138
Negotiating Rounds and Other Developments     141
Tokyo, Uruguay, and Doha     141
The Uruguay Round Agreements     142
Institutional and Structural Matters     144
The Nature of the WTO and the WTO Charter     144
WTO Membership and Structure     145
Decision Making and Dispute Settlement     146
Voting Power of IMF Member Countries and Constituencies     149
Battles over the GEOs' Policies and Operations     167
Bad Policies, Projects, and Performance     168
The Ideology of Trade Liberalization      168
The "Washington Consensus", Moral Hazard, the IMF, and the MDBs     175
The Criticisms     175
Improvement or Deterioration?     177
Causation     178
Moral Hazard?     179
Changed Prescriptions     180
Summing up on IMF Policy Prescriptions     182
Bad Projects, Priorities, and Performance by the MDBs     183
Bad MDB Policies and Projects?     184
Wrong Form of Assistance?     188
MDB Management and Staffing     190
Distributional and Social Injustice     193
Winners and Losers from WTO-Led Free Trade     193
Focusing on the National Level     194
Focusing on the Global Level     196
Austerity Measures, the IMF, and Social Ruin     200
Human Rights and the MDBs     203
Environmental Degradation     205
The MDBs and the Environment     206
Racing to the Bottom     208
Encroachments on Sovereignty     213
WTO Prohibitions on Social Protectionism     213
IMF and MDB Conditionality     218
Summary: Evaluating the Criticisms of GEO Policies and Operations     221
Battles over the GEOs' Character, Control, and Reach      227
Secrecy and Opaqueness     227
The Illumination of the IMF     228
The MDBs and the Momentum Toward Openness     230
The WTO-A Different Momentum Toward Openness     231
The Democracy Deficit     232
The IMF: Voting, Structure, Authority, and Leadership     233
The MDBs: More of the Same, But Worse     242
The WTO and Partial Unaccountability     248
Democracy in the WTO?     248
The WTO's Allegiance to Its Members     249
Genuine Unaccountability Problems     250
Strengthening Weak National Governments     252
Mission Creep of the MDBs and the IMF     255
Mission Creep and the Three Generations of MDBs     256
Old Dogs and New Tricks     256
Legality and Ideology     258
IMF Mission Creep?     263
Asymmetry in Obligations (IMF and the MDBs)     265
Asymmetry in IMF Obligations     266
Asymmetry in MDB Obligations     269
Summary: Evaluating the Criticisms of GEO Character, Control, and Reach     270
The Current Front in the Global Development War-How (and Whether) to Reform the GEOs?     275
Reforming the MDBs     276
Transparency      277
Participation     278
Legality     279
Competence     280
Accountability     282
Accountability of Member Countries     282
Accountability of the MDBs     283
Substantive Norms and Standards     285
Charter Amendments     287
Reforming the IMF     288
Structural and Operational Changes in the IMF     290
Enhancing Competence in National Governance     295
Reforming the WTO     301
Distributional Justice and Distributional Generosity     302
Environmental and Human Rights Protections     307
Transparency     310
Accountability     310
Development Assistance     312
Concluding Observations     313
Collective Assessment of the GEOs     313
The Perils of Bilateralism     315
Chinese Bilateral Development Financing     315
US Bilateral Trade Negotiations     318
The Role of the USA and the Future of the GEOs     320
Draft Protocol to the AsDB Charter     323
About the Author     329
Selected Bibliography     331
Index     339