Some Thoughts of Self-reliant Development, Collective Self-reliance and the New International Economic Order

The decades following the Second World War were marked by the rise of the liberation movement in the three continents, the main goals of which, in Asia and in Africa, were the reconquest of national independence and its defence by refusing the military alliances through which the United States sought to dominate the policy of the Third World states. But in general, the goals and methods of economic development pursued did not challenge the main features of the international division of labour shaped during the last century. Hence, an externally oriented and dependent development model was usually accepted. The objective failure of this model and the increasingly difficult problems gradually induced the Third World countries to embark upon a new strategy with the aim of consolidating their reconquered political independence by strengthening their economic independence.