Development and the United States

In this course we will explore the relationship between the United States and “Development”--the post-Second World War international project that emerged to help “modernize” the decolonizing world. We will investigate how the American modernization theory came to define the paths and goals of the international development project and how American policies of “nation building,” delineated U.S. relations with the “global south.” Readings will include theories on capitalist development and modernization, and discourses on American developmentalism in practice and their critiques 3 hrs. lect./disc.