A Dance Along the Precipice: The Political and Economic Dimensions of the International Debt Problem; World Debt Crisis: International Lending on Trial; Banks, Petrodollars, and Sovereign Debtors

Each of these collections adds something interesting to the great flow of writing on the international debt crisis. The Eskridge volume, based on a conference at the University of Virginia Law School, tilts toward the concerns of lawyers but gains from bringing in participants on both sides of debt reschedulings and is concerned about the economics of "redemocratization" in Latin America. The conference at Middlebury that gave rise to the papers edited by Michael Claudon is strong on the problems of the international system and the place of international organizations. The authors of the third volume (from Georgetown) go well beyond the oil angle suggested by the title, both in the coverage of international issues and in case studies of Brazil, Mexico and Israel. All three books give special attention to the behavior of banks; none suggests that we can soon relax about the debt problem.