The New International Economic Order, Interdependence, and Globalization

Abstract

This article examines two competing visions of global economic “interdependence” during the 1970s. The first was a hopeful vision proclaimed by the advocates of the New International Economic Order (NIEO), who saw interdependence as an opportunity to bring about greater economic equality between developed and developing nations. The NIEO’s critics argued for a more pessimistic view, emphasizing the way that interdependence transmitted economic shocks between countries and gave all nations a stake in maintaining the stability of the existing order. Despite their disagreements, however, both these visions shared the assumption that the global economy was governed by political rules and could be managed by collective state action. That assumption was increasingly challenged after the 1970s, leaving the NIEO debate as an important window into an era before more purely market-oriented visions of the global economy took hold.