In 1948, the newly-formed World Bank declared anyone with a per capita annual income below $100 as “poor,” and as if by fiat, over three-quarters of humanity became “impoverished” in an instant. But poverty has existed for centuries. The reason this declaration was remarkable was because this was the first time a global “minimum standard” for wealth had been established, which inevitably ranked nations on a scale ranging from less to more developed. This global problem of poverty called for new and innovative global solutions, and was the moment of the birth of "International Development”—the idea that “developed” nations ought to have a vested interest in the reduction of global poverty and in the economic development of other nations. The reality of this global project, however, has been markedly different from this promise. International Development, supercharged by the Cold War, became a weapon for toppling regimes, making covert war, and cornering new markets. It propped up military dictatorships in Asia, Africa and Latin America, armed religious extremists in Central Asia and the Middle East, created oligarchies, and compelled poor, often newly-independent nations, to exploit their natural resources in order to benefit private global firms. Using readings drawn from history, economics, political science and development studies, this elective course looks at the history of the modern period when humanity has tried to fix the problem of poverty, to understand what has worked and what hasn’t, and why. 

3 credits