New International Economic Order Research Articles

Samuel Kwadwo Boaten Asante and the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (1975–1992)

Abstract This article uses Samuel Kwadwo Boaten Asante’s career at the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (UNCTC) as a prism for examining the place of Third World Approaches to International Law within mainstream international organizations (IO) law. By focusing on his role as chief legal adviser, director and highest-ranking legal civil servant at the UNCTC during the heydays of the New International Economic Order (NIEO), it uncovers a less-examined international institution and the dilemmas faced by the Third World international legal civil servant. By examining Asante’s intellectual history and publications during the operational years of the UNCTC, it identifies three main under-explored typologies of Third World approaches to IO law. It argues that the low visibility of Third World approaches within mainstream IO law is closely linked to the failures of the NIEO movement, the abolition of the UNCTC, which symbolized the non-realization of aspirations to codify the principles of the NIEO through IOs, and minimal engagement by IO law scholars with Third World problems. This article argues that, even though the UNCTC ceased to exist in 1992, it created a lasting legacy through its advisory services, which forms part of IO law history.

Maturation of the Bandung Project with Lessons from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

Abstract January 2022 marked the rollout of the largest trading block in the world, the RCEP. It is the argument of the paper that this trading block emerged out of four periods of the Bandung Process that was launched in 1955 for the process of decolonization. In 1954, the Vietnamese army defeated the army of France and Dien Bien Phu. A year later, Vietnam was one of the founding members of the Bandung process. This was the project initiated by the formerly colonized states to form a global coalition to resist imperialism. Organizing to consolidate independence under the banner of the struggles for bread, freedom and justice, the Bandung movement anchored the nonaligned movement, the struggles in Palestine, the struggles against apartheid and the struggles for a New International Economic Order (NIEO). As a member of the 10 member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Vietnam has been at the forefront of opposing western economic and military domination of Asia. This resistance had matured in the formation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement which was signed in November 2020. RCEP brings together China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The paper traces four moments of the Bandung Process and brought to the fore the importance of the current historical conjuncture when Vietnamese diplomatic leadership within ASEAN facilitated this new trade deal. The combination of the intensified warfare, global health pandemics, crisis of global warming, the fragility of capital, the weaponization of trade and finance and instability generated by the US political system, along with systemic racism continues to point to the necessity for a new international monetary and financial system (IMFS). From the Bandung era, through the financial crises of capitalism, the societies of the South have been seeking new institutions and formations to break the stranglehold of western imperialism and white supremacy. The paper will highlight the possibilities offered by RECP in the context of the continued struggles for a New International Economic Order in opposition to the US project of the weaponization of trade and finance.

Lessons of the New International Economic Order for the Contemporary World Economy

Although the new international economic order (NIEO) has mostly been assessed as a failure, its ideas still seem relevant in today’s crisis environment. The new context clearly shows that the existing liberal international order is ineffective and calls for deep changes like in the times of the developing countries’ fight for the NIEO. The article considers whether its principles remain of relevance today, which ones have been amended and which should be newly introduced, all based on NIEO-related lessons. Dilemmas between international law or a rules-based order as a framework for global governance and whether the proposed new inclusive global economic order is to be based on values (and if so, which) are evaluated. Keywords: new international economic order, new inclusive global economic order, rules-based order, values, principles, international law, global governance, lessons

The Failure of New International Economic Order: a Lesson Learned

The establishment of the New International Economic Order (NIEO) has been underpinning the development of international law. The shortcomings of this struggle should be seen as a lesson-learn to step forward in the future. It is also essential to harmonise the economic justice relationship among all countries in the world regardless the developed or the developing countries. The sustainable struggle in the world economic sphere will appear as a shout from the perceived disadvantaged countries from an economic competition in the world.  The establishment of the right to development that have been adopted in international law is a part of journey of TW struggled in international relation. The paper is simultaneously based on the perception of understanding of principles of  NIEO coupled with scepticisms toward this principles and auto criticism of that scepticism in order to be a proposal as a source of international law in future

The New International Economic Order, Utopian Realism, and the Recovery of an Alternative Vision for Global Governance

Not so long ago, an alternative to American hegemony and progressive isolationism was elaborated by non-aligned segments of the international left. In the search for potentially usable models from the past, this paper will shed light on the New International Economic Order (NIEO). Promulgated as a United Nations resolution in 1974, and drafted by leaders in the Global South, the NIEO was one of the most widely discussed transnational governance reforms of the twentieth century. This paper will argue that the NIEO was an exercise in utopian realism that fundamentally depended on foregrounding the global security dilemma and defending the legitimacy and lasting utility nation-state. As a result of these commitments, the NIEO's proponents unwittingly self-limited their chances for long-term success on the international stage.

Double Loyalties?

As North–South conflict appeared to overshadow Cold War tensions in the early 1970s, minor powers as well as non-aligned states across the world faced new challenges. The oil crisis, the rise of environmentalism, and the calls for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) propelled a wide-ranging debate within the Nordic countries regarding their complex position vis-à-vis international development and global environment. In Sweden, these debates reflect the emergence of (inter)national knowledge production about economic inequalities, ecological imbalances, and sustainable development. While these debates can be followed in both media and public debate, they also resulted in a specific body of governmental reports, research projects, and future long-term planning for the 1980s. By analysing a series of such studies from Sweden, this article problematizes the fusing of ecology and economy, the grand strategy of small states, and the local intellectual history of global solidarity during a key moment in the global Cold War. It is argued that the NIEO agenda/ideology played a significant but understudied role in shaping the debate on the balance between development and environment as well as the idea of Sweden’s ‘double loyalties’ as a solidaristic small state and as a competitive advanced economy.

Transnational Elite Knowledge Networks: Managing American Hegemony in Turbulent Times

The liberal international order’s own theory is as much in crisis as the institutional system whose virtues it champions. This is due first to theoretical shortcomings per se, and due second to its misunderstanding or neglect of the role of elite knowledge networks and of socialization in the development and perpetuation of American liberal hegemony. This article, which adds to recent interest in the dynamics of hegemonic-order building and maintenance, argues that a neo–Gramscian-Kautskyian theoretical synthesis better explains the character and methods of the liberal international order. The article considers two cases through which to compare liberal-internationalist and Gramscian-Kautskyian claims: the 1970s challenge of third-world states under the banner of a new international economic order (NIEO) and the managed opening of China, and the Trumpian challenge to the liberal international order. On that basis, the article concludes that the hegemonic liberal international order and its core states and elite networks are engaged in a titanic struggle against forces unleashed by a combination of its own successes, inadequacies, and exclusions. Gramscian-Kautskyian theory, using the transnationally extended “elite knowledge network” concept, also suggests that, despite turbulence, the hegemonic liberal international order has significant powers of adaptation, co-optation, and resistance, and is likely to remain resilient, if turbulent and not unchanged, for the foreseeable future.

Inequality, Human Rights, and the New International Economic Order

Redressing global inequality was one of the key concerns of the Third World campaign to create a New International Economic Order (NIEO). However, human rights played no role in the NIEO which focused instead on transforming the international investment and trade regimes. This essay argues that the Third World countries were largely correct in their analysis of the limits of human rights. It draws upon insights of the NIEO experience to suggest why, in more recent times, human rights have largely failed to address the problem of global inequality in the face of neo-liberal globalization.

Possibilities of the Past: Histories of the NIEO and the Travails of Critique

AbstractThe resurfacing interest in the New International Economic Order (NIEO) is mainly driven by the ambition of regaining a sense for past possibilities in order to question the present and to open up different futures. This ambition resonates with the core of critical thinking which pushes toward an appreciation of contingencies. What was possible? When approaching this question, however, historical inquiries must not overstate the possibilities of different action at the expense of determining structures. More specifically, they need to deal with the low degree of institutionalized politics on the international plane. And they need to counter a tendency toward excess nostalgia for that which was not. More than anything else, the history of the NIEO testifies to the great difficulties in turning claims about contingency into compelling narratives. Another way of approaching the NIEO, however, does not place actual possibilities at its centre, but unrealized potentials.

New International Economic Order (NIEO): Origin, Elements and Criticisms

Employing secondary sources of data this paper aims to assess the history, elements, and criticisms against New International Economic Order (NIEO). NIEO is mainly an economic movement happened after WWII with the aim of empowering developing countries politically through economic growth. It also criticizes the existing political and economic system as benefiting developed countries at the cost of developing countries so that a new system is needed that benefits poor countries. However, many criticize NIEO as hypothetical and unorganized movement. Clear division and disagreements among its members is evident. Developing countries failed to form unity, committed to meet the objectives of NIEO, and unable to compete in the market.

Contentious nationalization and the embrace of the developmental ideals: Resource nationalism in the 1970s in Ecuador

Established scholarship on the governance of natural resources focuses on either material or ideational motivations in explaining states’ nationalist policies. Based on the case of Ecuador’s oil industry in the 1970s, this article shows how material and ideational drivers are often intertwined. In this article, I analyze the 1970s resource nationalist policies advanced in Ecuador. This article argues that increased rent capture was possible in the 1970s as the Ecuadorian state improved its bargaining position vis-á-vis foreign companies, whose investments had been sunk from previous decades of explorations. But also, this nationalist position was articulated with a broader political notion of development and national identity as an oil producer. Despite these motivations, the various legal reforms that increased state control over the industry in the 1970s were always partial and contentious. The article also highlights how these nationalist policies found in the emerging views of the New International Economic Order (NIEO) and the movement of Third World nations a source of inspiration. This explanation of the 1970s Ecuadorian oil history offers a holistic analysis of both the ideational and the material motivations for the military regime’s resource nationalism and explains the complexities of exercising control for a small oil producer.

Palm oil not polar bears: climate change and development in Malaysian media

To date, debates about climate change reporting in national media focus largely on Western democracies. We aim to broaden the scope for cross‐national comparison by looking at climate change reporting in Malaysia – an emerging economy in the global South facing developmental tensions common to many, specifically an ambitious national climate change agenda in the face of an economy largely reliant on the extraction and export of primary commodities. Our questions are: How is climate change framed in Malaysian media? How do Malaysian narratives compare with those found elsewhere? How do climate change and development narratives interact in a ‘second tier’ emerging economy? And lastly, what do these interacting narratives say about the salience of neoliberal and North–South perspectives on climate change and development? To answer these questions, we undertook a content analysis of climate action stories published over a three‐year period (2009–2011) in five English‐language news sources. In addition to a high proportion of environmental‐framed articles across all the news sources, our findings show that climate change has been framed as both a multi‐scalar responsibility and a positive opportunity for two key stakeholders in development, i.e. neoliberal market forces and geopolitical actors keenly interested in restructuring the international political economy along lines reminiscent of the new international economic order (NIEO) demands of the 1970s. We label the key themes emergent from our analysis as climate capitalism and green nationalism (neither of which are unique to Malaysia), while demonstrating that debates about palm oil are particularly illustrative of the interaction of these themes in the Malaysian context. In the final section we suggest thinking of the interacting elements as a singular, structuralist model of green development – one reminiscent of discourses at work in other emerging economies.

Developing countries and the right to development: a retrospective and prospective African view

The end of World War II, and the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, unleashed great expectations of a brave new world, in which the promotion and protection of human rights would become the central organising principle of international relations. This article examines the long struggle that African countries, joined by other developing countries, have waged at the UN for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) and for the right to development to be recognised as legally enforceable and universal. To date, however, the right to development has not entered the practical realm of planning and implementation at the national and international levels. The article assesses the internal and external factors that have prevented countries in the Global South from fulfilling the rights of their citizens to development and from moving the agenda forward.

Correcting TwaillS Blind Spots: A Plea for a Pragmatic Approach to International Economic Governance

Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) has vehemently opposed classical doctrines of international law, which are perceived as being at odds with Third World interests, since its emergence. Its criticisms of international law are manifold but opposition to international economic governance (IEG) has been especially unyielding. Overtime this generated TWAIL critiques of IEG. These have manifested mainly in the new international economic order (NIEO) critique, influenced in the post-colonial era by earlier Latin American national economic control (NEC) theory. The NIEO critique refers to Third World attempts, from the 1960s to 1980s, to restructure international economic relations to establish an equilibrium between developing and industrial economies, thereby challenging the unfair international trading and finance rules advanced by developed countries. The debate has since experienced a paradigm shift towards greater critical analysis of Third World States’ participation in the global economy. This refers to the regime bias critique. Regime bias views the manner in which rules of IEG are crafted, applied and adjudicated between industrialized and developing countries, or between developing countries and the interest of global capital, as ‘unfair’. It rejects the manner in which choices are made between alternative ways of crafting rules, the meaning ascribed to a particular rule in its application by administrative agencies or at the adjudication stage by international tribunals in disputes involving developing countries. Albeit divergent in their approaches, both critiques view IEG as being at odds with Third World interests and have criticized the current regime as facilitating the post-colonial economic exploitation of Third World States only in a more nuanced manner than was the norm during colonialism. TWAIL’s critique has garnered some sophistication since its emergence. Nevertheless, it is still criticized for harboring blind spots. One such ‘blind spot’ is that while it may be the appropriate conceptual framework for leveling criticisms against international law, its criticisms, however, fail to offer pragmatic proposals for improvement. TWAIL’s critique fails to acknowledge that developing countries are generally not participating in the global economy to the degree necessary to boost their economies. This is problematic as it creates an adversarial relationship between developing countries and international law, thereby masking the potential for these States to develop under the aegis of the current regime. There exists the need for a more theoretically informed analysis than the lump-sum critique, which perceives international law as failing to take into account Third World interests. It would be more beneficial for TWAIL to be a source of reform, or more appropriately, a forum for constructive engagement of these States with IEG as this would create more meaningful participation of developing countries in the global economy.

Competing for the Last Utopia?: The NIEO, Human Rights, and the World Conference for the International Women’s Year, Mexico City, June 1975

At the World Conference for the International Women’s Year (WCIWY), held in Mexico City, across June and July 1975, the evangelists of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) advocated a revolutionary transformation of the world economic system as the means for securing the rights of women. Coincident with the “breakthrough” era of global human rights mobilization, the NIEO presented a competitor vision of universal justice. Yet the NIEO sought to augment the southern state, deploying the internationalist language of rights and solidarity to enhance the status not of the citizen, but of the sovereign. This article addresses the interaction between the NIEO’s claims and the language and philosophy of human rights, with a focal point on the WCIWY, when these two languages, often commingled, began to fractionate into discrete projects.

From Boumedienomics to Reaganomics: Algeria, OPEC, and the International Struggle for Economic Equality

The New International Economic Order (NIEO) has fallen into neglect. But it is fair to argue that the world of the 1980s was in so many ways created as a reaction to the economic, political, legal, and cultural implications of the NIEO. As a challenge to market capitalism and as the proposition of an international alternative based on state planning and worldwide redistribution under UN supervision, it has been in the 1970s probably more important that International Communism. This paper traces the steps that led Algeria to a prominent role within OPEC and more broadly within the global south as a speaker for the NIEO cause: first its struggle towards independence, then the decision to nationalize natural resources, and finally its effort to internationalize the battle of raw materials producers through NIEO.

Bookend to Bandung: The New International Economic Order and the Antinomies of the Bandung Era

The 1974 Declaration of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) is best understood as a closing expression of what might be conceived as “the Bandung Era.” Recognizing strong utopian currents of ambition and innovation within the NIEO, this essay nevertheless sees the NIEO as a retreat into international law and away from the mass movement workers’ radicalism that was evident (though still riven with contradictions) in the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia. Periodizing the Bandung conference and the NIEO Declaration as bookends of a single era enables us to consider the dynamic relationship between the state and capital in the era of decolonization, and hence to more fully consider the legacies of both moments.

Socialist Globalization against Capitalist Neocolonialism: The Economic Ideas behind the New International Economic Order

Much globalization scholarship assumes that the United States and other advanced industrialized capitalist countries are the primary agents of globalization. However, when we examine economic globalization more closely and from the perspective of Second- and Third-World institutions, we can see that the Non-Aligned Movement, the Second World, and the Third World more broadly worked hard to create a global economy in the face of active resistance by the United States and other current and former colonial powers, which sought to maintain the economic status quo of the colonial system. This article explores one of the centers of global economic thought and policy for the New International Economic Order (NIEO): the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

'We Have Met The Enemy And He Is US!' Is the industrialized North 'Going South' on investor-State arbitration?

This article examines the recent trend among some states to denounce the ICSID Convention or terminate or critically review their bilateral investment promotion and protection treaties against the backdrop of the 1970s New International Economic Order (NIEO). After providing an overview of the original NIEO, an idea many considered defeated with the rise of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties, the authors explain why the international community should be concerned with the recent emergence of a ‘NEO-NIEO’, led in part by the original movement’s critics. Permanent sovereignty over natural resources, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1803 (XVII) (1962) Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3201 (S-VI) (1974) Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3281 (XXIX) (1974) US Model Bilateral Investment Treaty (2012)

North/South: The United States Responds to the New International Economic Order

Launched in 1974, the Group of 77’s appeal for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) challenged the liberal international economic order that the United States had built during the 1940s and still superintended. This article follows the responses of U.S. policymakers in the mid-1970s to the NIEO and its proponents. U.S. officials, it argues, concurred that the NIEO was a challenge to the postwar status quo but disagreed as to how that challenge should be met. Within the Ford administration (1974–77), Secretary of State Henry Kissinger favored prudent appeasement; others preferred to confront the G-77, resulting in a confused and partial policy. While the Carter administration (1977–81) proved more inclined to conciliate the G-77, its efforts, too, encountered significant obstacles, with the result that its response to the NIEO proved no more constructive than the Ford administration’s had been.