A Foreign Affairs discussion on the future of international trade and development policy.
The American version of capitalism is no longer dominant around the world. In the next decade, developing countries are likely to continue to trade the flexibility and efficiency associated with the free-market model for domestic policies meant to ensure greater resilience in the face of competitive pressures and global economic trauma.
Increasing aid and market access for poor countries makes sense but will not do that much good. Wealthy nations should also push other measures that could be far more rewarding, such as giving the poor more control over economic policy, financing new development-friendly technologies, and opening labor markets.
As the international community debates whether the recent discovery of huge caches of untapped mineral deposits will be good for Afghanistan, it would do well to consider the similar challenge posed by Iraq's oil reserves. In this article from the Foreign Affairs archive, Nancy Birdsall and Arvind Subramanian write that vast wealth from natural resources can often be a curse, not a blessing.
