ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the socialist countries are comprised of the six European Council of Mutual Economic Assistance countries and the Soviet Union. By demanding a New International Economic Order (NIEO) the periphery has expressed its strong discontent with the present world economy, and with its own disadvantaged position within the global economic and political framework. Due to the asymmetry in West-South and East-South relations NIEO-demands were mainly addressed to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries. Socialist Countries (SCs) were understandably eager to present capitalist countries as those responsible for all the negative effects of North-South relations, thus intensifying the impression that the NIEO, or changing the present order as such, was exclusively a matter concerning West-South relations. Since the beginning of serious negotiations on NIEO demands at UNCTAD IV, where SC support for the periphery had become more equivocal, Lawson thought it feasible to analyze SC positions as a single bloc.
