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This book explores the history of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and its place within capitalist development. Since 1948, the OECD and its forerunner, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) worked on almost every subject of interest to national governments ranging from economic growth to education (PISA rankings), statistics, to the environment. With varying success the OEEC/OECD thus played a key role as a warden of the West and of capitalist development. However, it has remained one of the least understood international organizations. Bringing together a number of case studies by scholars from around the world, this first source-based volume on the history of the OEEC/OECD in global governance offers not only a new understanding of the Organization´s key areas of activities, but also its multiple relations to member states, other international organizations, and private networks. The volume thus critically re-examines postwar international history, most importantly decolonization and the Cold War, through the prism of one international organization in its various contexts.

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Introduction: Writing histories of the OECD; Matthieu Leimgruber & Matthias Schmelzer.- From the Marshall Plan to global governance: Historical transformations of the OEEC/OECD, 1948 to present; Matthias Schmelzer & Matthieu Leimgruber.- A short guide to historical archives, online resources, and research materials on the OEEC/OECD.- Part I: Being part of the West.- Western European vs. all-European cooperation? The OEEC, the European Recovery Program, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), 1947-1952; Daniel Stinsky.- A socialist developing country in a Western capitalist club. Yugoslavia and the OEEC/OECD, 1955-1980; Andrej Markovic & Ivan Obadic.- Shall we or shall we not? The Japanese, Australian and New Zealand decisions to apply for membership of the OECD, 1960-1973; Peter Carroll.- The construction of a Western voice: OECD and the first UNCTAD of 1964; Patricia Hongler.- Part II: Managing the economy.- From post-war reconstruction to multi-level neo-corporatism. The OEEC/OECD and steel during the Cold War; Wolfram Kaiser.- A crisis manager for the international monetary and financial system? The rise and fall of the OECD Working Party 3, 1961-1980; Kazuhiko Yago.- Peer pressure in Paris: Country reviews at the OECD in the 1960s and 1970s; William Gray.- ´Positive adjustments´: the emergence of supply-side economics in the OECD and G7, 1970-1984; Samuel Beroud.- Part III: Coping with socio-ecological challenges.- The narrowing-down of the OEEC/OECD migration functions, 1947-1986; Emmanuel Comte & Simone Paoli.- Engineering the Free World. The emergence of the OECD as an actor in education policy, 1957-1972; Regula Bürgi.- Negotiating environment: The making of the OECD Environment Committee and the Polluter Pays Principle, 1968-1972; Iris Borowy.- Gendering development: the OECD´s Development Assistance Committee, 1981-2000; Rianne Mahon.

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"This ground-breaking collection is part of a larger research project now based at the University of Zurich ... . Although there is quite a substantial literature on the OECD, its rich archival resources are largely unstudied, and it is still relatively neglected among international organizations concerned with the global political economy. This volume continues the considerable task of remedying the first of these issues, and makes a strong contribution to the second across a wide range of issues." (whatsworthreading.weebly.com, April, 2018)

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