What diplomatic strategies have developing countries sought to use to achieve their policy objectives?

What diplomatic strategies have developing countries sought to use to achieve their policy objectives?

Introduction

A central issue for much of the world, according to Mittelman (1988), is how to attain an investable surplus while reducing global inequality in the face of international organizations, aid agencies, technological agreements, multinational corporations and banks. He argues that underdevelopment is not inevitable in the third world, but is the consequence of three forces: capital accumulation, the state, and social classes. He delves into three general strategies of how nations could join global capitalism, retreat from the world capitalist system, and balance the bonds of dependency.

Kruijer (1987) focuses directly on the poor and the oppressed by analysing their plight in terms of the national and international wealth system of domination. He suggests a 'liberation' strategy to provide for basic needs such as education and health care, shelter and clothing, to ensure balanced development of the forces of production, orientate social values in a socialist direction; emancipate women, abolish class distinctions, establish political power with the people, and end economic relationships with the wealthy powerful capitalist world. He sees the process of change as evolving through phases: from the capitalist mode of production in which the bourgeoisie is the ruling class and dominates the state; to a transitional phase in which the capitalist mode is gradually abolished and the interests of the people are represented by the state but the people have little said; to a state-socialist phase in which private enterprise has largely disappeared and people still have little input; to a democratic socialist phase in which the power of the state is gradually reduced and decisions are increasingly vested in the people.

Discussion and Analysis

Dube (1988) sums up a number of policy recommendations in the direction of rethinking the goals and strategies of development: plans for economic growth must be balanced by enriching the quality of life and meeting the basic needs of all people; eliminate all poverty, not by welfarism but by a radical altering of planning and implementation policies; instil in people recognition of their rights and responsibilities through programmes of conscientization; ensure participation in a policy of affirmative action to include all deprived sectors of society; implement administrative restructuring, renovation and innovation, and remove vestiges of colonial and Western-style democratic practices that have failed in third world countries; manage the socio-cultural environment so as to avoid counter-development; and re-examine the global context of development so as to close the bipolar gap between rich and poor worlds, find an equitable sharing of scarce resources, and improve the human condition of all peoples.

These policy issues are analysed around the notion of sustainable development in an effort to raise global consciousness about environmental degradation and the deterioration of the planet. This notion, according to the World Commission on Environment and Development, is possible when 'Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable - to ensure that it meets the needs ...