ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Herman Kahn takes the gap question full circle by making two arguments. First, he believes that the gap between rich and poor nations is a positive development that will serve as the “basic ‘engine’ of growth” in the poor countries, eventually propelling them toward unprecedented levels of growth and thereby eventually narrowing the gap. Second, Kahn argues that a large group of middle income countries, constituting 47 percent of the world’s population, have already made great strides and are beginning to close the gap. For the poorest nations, the gap will widen in the immediate future, but thereafter the gap effect also will propel these nations into development and eventually eliminate the wide gaps present today. Kahn goes beyond this prediction to argue that foreign aid programs which seek to reduce the gap are only likely to delay economic development among the poor countries by reducing the force of gap-induced development. In this respect then, Kahn agrees with the world-system analysts who see foreign aid as slowing growth, but stands their argument on its head by asserting, in effect, that forces within the world system will actually stimulate growth in the poor nations.
