Britain and the Politics of Modernization in the Middle East,... - 9780521563468

Britain and the Politics of Modernization in the Middle East, 19451958Author(s): Paul W. T. Kingston\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521563468, 978-0521563468\nSynopsis\nIn an historically informed critique of the theory and practice of development assistance, this book examines Britain's foreign aid programme in the Middle East in the 1940s and 1950s. After an assessment of the origins of what was dubbed the 'peasants, not pashas' policy - notably the link between development, sterling balances, and post-war imperial strategy - the author focuses on planning and policy debates between British development experts, their American rivals, and Middle Eastern technocrats. These debates, which centred on issues such as afforestation, irrigation, and rural credit, raise important questions about the nature and limits of the development process within the Middle East and the Third World which the aut.