Corinna R. Unger

Towards global equilibrium: American foundations and Indian modernization, 1950s to 1970s

This article studies the activities of American philanthropic foundations in India between the 1950s and 1970s. It discusses why private institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation felt committed to responding to problems of hunger and population growth abroad and how they managed to establish themselves as leaders in the development aid arena. Instead of considering the foundations as handmaidens of US national strategic interests shaped by the Cold War, the article argues that they should be understood as highly flexible transnational agents who, in an ambitious combination of philanthropic motives, institutional interests, and trust in the power of science, diagnosed political problems and developed methods to overcome them in order to reduce global inequality.

Environmental Impacts of Nuclear Testing in Remote Oceania, 1946–1996

We both had a strange feeling. We noticed no flies, no movement of lizards and no booby birds. We found several burnt and dead pigs, and in the distance we heard one of the three wild pigs. It was badly burnt and going around in circles, blind. I said, “[T]his bloody place is contaminated, and what the hell are we doing here?” – Ken Cox, on the conditions he observed on Malden Island shortly after an aboveground nuclear bomb test in 1957 The testing of atomic and thermonuclear bombs can provide various types of information, including how these extremely destructive weapons work, how they perform under different conditions, and how natural and man-made structures, as well as organisms, react when subjected to nuclear explosions. Atomic and thermonuclear bomb testing has been used frequently to manifest both military and scientific power, especially during the Cold War. In fact, most, if not all, tests were initiated with explicit political intention, often with little regard for the ecological consequences. Here, for the first time, we present an up-to-date regional review of the main direct and indirect atmospheric, geological, and ecological effects of nuclear testing in Remote Oceania. In the process, we draw attention to short- and long-term environmental consequences of this testing as well as the human motivations and mistakes involved in these nuclear experiments.

Industrialization vs. Agrarian Reform: West German Modernization Policies in India in the 1950s and 1960s

Industrialization or Agrarian Reform? West German Modernization Policies in India in the 1950s and 1960s This article takes into view different West German positions on Third World modernization and studies how they translated into development programmes in India in the 1950s and 1960s. Two projects serve as case studies: The steel mill Rourkela embodies the industrialization approach favoured by representatives of West German business and economic interests, most of whom were convinced of the need for and the advantages of, industrialization as the most effective path toward overall modernization. The other case study is the agricultural co-operative project Mandi, which, in part, mirrored the anti-modern (and, in some instances, anti- American) critique of the Western modernization model and focused on gradual improvement instead of radical change. This approach rested on the belief in the need for a stable Third World order able to withstand communism and, linked to that, the fear of ‹overpopulation›. Indias development and modernization policies and programmes are integrated into the discussion of the two case studies. In conclusion, the article considers the role of the Cold War and decolonization in modernization policies as well as the contrast between modernization theory and practice.

The United States, Decolonization, and the Education of Third World Elites

From the 1950s until the 1970s, educating elites in the decolonized world featured prominently in private and public American development policies.1 Large sums of money were invested into establishing universities, libraries, research institutes, and exchange programs to bring forth “the best and the brightest” of the newly independent Asian and African nations. As Dean Rusk, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, put it in 1955, initiating and supporting education measures in the decolonized regions was expected to play a role in determining whether newly independent nations can erect a structure of government and public order under which peaceful development may proceed; whether public office can become a public trust, separate from private interest; whether national revolutions are to be diverted, by the colonial issue, away from their democratic base to become a source of energy and power for dictatorship; … whether they will be “open” societies, in the humanistic tradition of the West, or closed by dogma or ideology.2 Framed by modernization theory and Cold War liberalism, the support of elites through higher education seemed to offer a peaceful, constructive way of furthering indigenous as well as American interests in the context of decolonization and the Cold War.

Introduction: International Organizations, Global Development, and the Making of the Contemporary World

In September 2000, world leaders gathered for a historic meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in order to lay out their vision of the twenty-first century’s world. In a declaration that became known as the “United Nations Millennium Declaration,” they outlined the following goals: By 2015, the global community was to halve “the proportion of the world’s people whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger”; it was to make sure that “children everywhere…will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling,” and it would reduce “maternal mortality by three quarters.” Also, it would halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria, promote gender equality, and improve the living conditions of slum dwellers.1 Following up on this declaration two years later, the United Nations launched the “UN Millennium” campaign and charged an expert commission, headed by Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, with developing a concrete action plan that would spell out how these goals could be achieved. Published in 2005, the plan announced a new “era in international development” and, with its hundreds of proposals, left no doubt that a “decade of bold ambition” had begun.2

„Einteilen, sparen, sinnvoll ausgeben“ Entwicklungspolitische Diskurse über Geldverhalten und Geschlecht im 20. Jahrhundert

Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit Idealvorstellungen vom ‚richtigen‘ Umgang mit Geld, die in entwicklungspolitischen Überlegungen und Konzepten des Westens enthalten waren und das Geldverhalten von Menschen in ‚Entwicklungsländern‘ beeinflussen sollten. Den Hintergrund für das Interesse an solchen Diskursen bildet die Beobachtung, dass sowohl die koloniale als auch die postkoloniale Entwicklungspolitik von einem erzieherischen Charakter gekennzeichnet war, wie etwa der Begriff der „Zivilisierungsmission“ zeigt.1 Verbunden mit der Zivilisierungsmission, die über das formale Ende des Kolonialismus hinaus bestand, war das Gefühl der eigenen zivilisatorischen Überlegenheit, die unter anderem in Strukturen wie einer komplexen Marktund Geldwirtschaft zum Ausdruck zu kommen schien. Um die diagnostizierte ‚Rückständigkeit‘ der Kolonien und, im Rahmen der Dekolonisierung, der neuen Nationen zu beheben, sollten die Grundlagen für eine sozioökonomische Ordnung geschaffen werden, die den kapitalistischen Prinzipien der westlichen Industrienationen zumindest ähnelte. Zu diesem Zweck galt es, ‚rationale‘ Verhaltensformen in den betreffenden Gesellschaften zu verankern.2 So forderte etwa Wilhelm Röpke, einer der Vordenker der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft, 1961, die westliche Entwicklungshilfe solle den Menschen in der sogenannten Dritten Welt die mentalen Voraussetzungen für marktwirtschaftlichen Erfolg nahebringen: „Unternehmungsgeist ..., Werktreue, Verläßlich-