Development, Culture and Conflict

This is the introduction to the article ‘Development, Culture and Conflict’ by Jan Pronk, President of the Society for International Development, published in Development 52.4 ‘Xenophobia, Culture and Identity’.

From 1945 to 1989 international relations were characterized by two major conflicts.¹ East and West drifted into a political and ideological conflict, a Cold War between superpowers threatening each other with nuclear arms. The aspirations of people in the South to liberate themselves from the political, economic and cultural oppression by the North led to a second conflict: a world groundswell towards decolonization that could have developed into a chain of long-lasting violent confrontations. However, neither of the two conflicts developed into a global battlefield.

Parties at all sides, fearing that a Third World War would result in mutual nuclear annihilation, exercised restraint. The United Nations system and its Security Council provided for an institutional mechanism to address issues that serve as a reason to launch a war. Institutions did play an important role in the second half of the last century. Next to the UN many new institutions came into being. The establishment of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, fostering political and military cooperation among the members of the respective alliances, resulted in a balance of power between East and West. The Bretton Woods system and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade helped to mitigate international economic instability, so that a return of the economic crisis of the 1930s could be avoided. The creation of the European Community with a Common Market of the economies of both the victorious and the defeated countries in western Europe was a peace project on the basis of economic cooperation, meant to once and for all prevent a new world war starting in Europe.

Full article in PDF.

Photo credit: on the road with sankara

Written by: Laura

Filed Under: Conflict, Culture and identity, Development, Featured

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About Laura

Laura Fano Morrissey is External Relations Officer at the SID Secretariat in Rome. She is also working on the journal Development as Acting Assistant Editor. Laura graduated in Political Science and holds a Master’s Degree in Latin American Studies from the University of London. She has worked extensively in the NGO sector, mainly with a focus on Latin America.

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