scholarly journals ‘Crude’ Alliance – Economic Decolonisation and Oil Power in the Non-Aligned World

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Ljubica Spaskovska
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
World Bank ◽  
International Economic Order ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Oil Pipeline ◽  
Dependent Relationship ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Political Relations

The article examines Yugoslavia's and by extension the Non-Aligned Movement's relations with the Middle East, reflecting more broadly on the developmental hierarchies and inner divides between the oil producing and non-oil producing countries within the Movement. The ‘energy shocks’ of the 1970s had a dramatic impact on non-OPEC developing countries and sowed long-lasting rifts in the non-aligned/developing world. The article embeds these events within the debates about the ‘New International Economic Order’ (NIEO), economic decolonisation and the nationalisation of energy resources in the 1970s, but also seeks to provide a longer-term overview of the economic and political relations that non-aligned Yugoslavia sought to forge with the Middle East, in particular with other non-aligned partners such as Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Kuwait. New forms of Cold War developmental multilateralism emerged as a consequence of the energy crisis – the supply of Arab oil to areas which had traditionally relied on Soviet energy not only foreshadowed the emergence of a new hierarchical and dependent relationship between Yugoslavia and the Middle East, it also engendered new forms of economic cooperation and strategic economic multi-alignment through the pooling of resources and expertise from non-aligned, Eastern Bloc states and the United Nations, illustrated here through the Adria Oil Pipeline built in the 1970s and co-financed by Yugoslavia, Kuwait, Libya, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the World Bank.

scholarly journals Social Sciences at the World Bank and the Broadening of the Development Paradigm

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-79
Author(s):  
Ismail Serageldin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Middle East ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Graduate Studies ◽  
Young Professional ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Paradigm

AbstractI joined the World Bank in 1972 as a ‘Young Professional’, recruited right after my graduate studies at Harvard. Over the years the Bank entrusted me with diverse jobs and responsibilities, mostly in the Middle East and Africa regions, regarded as the most difficult. This broad spectrum of assignments exposed me to many types of the Bank’s activities, each one a school for understanding complexity and a place of experiential enrichment.

Food Stamps for International Neighbors

Worldview ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 26-43
Author(s):  
William E. Colby
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
International Economic Order ◽  
Food Stamps ◽  
Economic Order ◽  
Main Attention ◽  
American Citizen ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
New Generation

A new international economic order, strategic arms limitations, the interminable problems of the Middle East—these and many other foreign problems swirl around the average American citizen in a dazzle of complexity. The language of concern in which these and other issues are debated falls on ears that heard the equally serious and sincere language leading to the massive and mistaken involvement in Vietnam. And serious academics publish revisionist histories that contend that the cold war that mobilized the nation's energies for two decades came more from American aggressiveness than from foreign threat. A new generation of Americans turns its main attention away from such faraway, difficult, and ambiguous problems to ones closer to home, such as energy, the environment, and the economy.

Highlighting inequalities in the histories of human rights: Contestations over justice, needs and rights in the 1970s

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 871-895
Author(s):  
JULIA DEHM
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Third World ◽  
International Economic Order ◽  
Global South ◽  
International Order ◽  
Structural Approach ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

AbstractThis article considers the ways in which concerns about economic equalities, both among and within countries, were taken up in human rights debates of the 1970s and how concerns about economic inequalities impacted on discussions about the possibilities, objectives and conceptions of rights. It shows how scholars and advocates from the global South, concerned about the production of underdevelopment and unequal accumulation, advocated a more ‘structural approach’ to human rights during this period that argued that a just international order was necessary for the realization of rights. The article first considers Third World demands for a New International Economic Order to address inequalities among countries, as well as the potentially conflicting focus on inequalities within countries by the World Bank and its subsequent promotion of a ‘basic needs’ approach to development. Thereafter, it considers how these different approaches to economic inequality were taken up in and influenced human rights debates and frameworks of this period.

The World Bank Financial Intermediary Funds as a Multilateral Mechanism to Channel Assistance to Politically Unstable Regions: The Case of the Middle East and North Africa Transition Fund

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 72-108
Author(s):  
Vladimir Bartenev ◽  
◽  
Alexey Solomatin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
World Bank ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Fragile States ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Financial Intermediary ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

In recent years there has been a steady growth of “multi-bilateral aid,” or voluntary earmarked contributions transferred by international donors through multilateral organizations. The World Bank Group’s financial intermediary funds (FIFs) and trust funds have gained an especially wide recognition and have been particularly instrumental in channelling aid to fragile states — a priority group of partners for achieving the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. But researchers have paid much less attention to FIFs than to trust funds.This article identifies characteristic features of World Bank IFIs as a multilateral mechanism to channel aid to politically unstable regions, focusing on the Middle East and North Africa Transition Fund (MENA TF) established in 2012 to support Arab countries undergoing political transitions as a result of the Arab Awakening. The introductory section examines the particularities, benefits and risks of establishing FIFs as multilateral mechanisms to transfer development assistance. These parameters are illustrated in subsequent sections which discuss the MENA TF’s establishment procedures, governance structure, and mobilization and allocation of funds.The article concludes that for each of the parties involved, hypothetically, World Bank FIFs are a quite convenient mechanism for supporting fragile states. However, the example of the MENA TF conclusively shows that everything depends on the concrete political context of their establishment and operation. In terms of some key parameters (establishment procedure, governance structure) the MENA TF mechanism is very similar to other funds of the same type, but its operation is strongly affected by challenges uncommon to the majority of FIFs, which are focused on more politically neutral sectors. These challenges stem from several factors, including the predominance of political decisions within the Deauville Partnership, a unique list of contributors, and a severity of discord among them given the drastic deterioration of the political climate in the Arab world and beyond in 2014. This not only disrupted plans to engage more donors and mobilize the planned amount of funds, but it also stipulated a visible politicization of aid allocation. Political risks which materialized in the MENA TF operations might occur in other FIFs focused on fragile states and situations. The establishment of additional multilateral mechanisms, thus, requires learning from experience and prioritizing risk assessment and mitigation.

scholarly journals Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in the Middle East Region: An Empirical Analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Munir Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Middle East ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Econometric Model ◽  
Trade Openness ◽  
Fdi Inflows ◽  
East Region ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Middle East Region

The objective of the present study is to examine the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in the Middle East region, and it also attempts to identify the potential determinants for the investment inflows. With this purpose taking assistance of public database such as the World Bank (WB), and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) a panel econometric model has been specified and tested for a sample of 09countries over a period of 35 years (1981-2015). The result of the study shows Purchasing Power, Human Capital and Trade Openness as the key determinants of Inward FDI inflows for the growth and development of the Middle East region.

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