ABSTRACT
UNCTAD’s founding reflected the growth in membership of newly
independent states within the United Nations (UN). A large number
of the elites of these new entities keenly felt the iniquity of the world
order upon which they had been launched. UNCTAD and the later
call for a ‘‘New International Economic Order’’ (NIEO) therefore was
a rejoinder to problems encountered by developing countries as a
result of the creation and operation of the Bretton Woods Institutions
(BWIs).1 The history of UNCTAD stakes out the rise of these positions in global diplomacy and equally, their effective demise.
