Third World cooperation: The group of 77 in UNCTAD

The Third World's attempt to reform the international economic order sprang to prominence in the 1970s with the onset of the New International Economic Order (NIEO) negotiators. The demise of the NIEO, global recession and debt crises in the 1980s have pushed global economic reform initiated by Third World states to the back of the international agenda in the 1980s. Nevertheless, in face of Western indifference and hostility and increased economic differentiation and disparity, the Third World coalition has remained in existence. The Group of 77 (G77) is the central instrument through which the developing countries have attempted to transform international regimes in trade and payments. The G77 articulates the interests of over 100 countries and functions as the principal collective negotiating instrument of the developing world in international development diplomacy. This book explains the creation and maintenance of G77 as a symbol of Third World solidarity, within an historical perspective by examining the world economic order in the immediate post-war period (1945-1963). It was at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in 1964 (UNCTAD 1) that the G77 emerged as a significant force in world politics. In spite of the wide-ranging diversity of its membership, the absence of a permanent institutional framework and the uneven impact of global capitalism on its membership, the G77 remains in existence. The author examines the organisational framework of UNCTAD and the Group of 77. Since 1964 UNCTAD has assumed the key institutional role in the campaign by the developing countries to reform the international economic order. The third section deals with two case studies of conflict and conflict management, and how this policy has evolved from 1964-1980.