An Alternative Image of Multilateral Development Diplomacy: Some Suggestions

Abstract

Multilateral development diplomacy from 1964 to 1984 was paradoxical. Group bargaining launched a highly desirable process of dialogue between the North and the South but also subsequently paralysed it. Largely at the insistence of the Group of 77, the present procedures for multilateral development diplomacy have been shaped and institutionalized to such an extent that they are now sacrosanct. They have in certain ways outlived their historical origins. At best they often impede progress, and at worst they are counterproductive in terms of facilitating agreement on specific and operational components of a better international economic order. The Brandt Commission in its first report hinted at the shortcomings of the Group of 77: ‘The time has come to examine whether a negotiating format can be devised which is more functional, while fully respecting the concerns of developing countries for maintaining their solidarity.’¹ Unlike the Brandt Commission, however, we do not consider it essential for developing countries to maintain solidarity, but rather seek selectively to move beyond the system of groups and imagine multilateral development diplomacy without them.