This book explores the history of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) and its place within capitalist development. Since 1948 the OECD and its forerunner
the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) worked on almost every subject of
interest to national governments ranging from economic growth to education (PISA rankings)
statistics to the environment. With varying success the OEEC OECD thus played a key role as a
warden of the West and of capitalist development. However it has remained one of the least
understood international organizations. Bringing together a number of case studies by scholars
from around the world this first source-based volume on the history of the OEEC OECD in global
governance offers not only a new understanding of the Organization's key areas of activities
but also its multiple relations to member states other international organizations and
private networks. The volume thus critically re-examines postwar international history most
importantly decolonization and the Cold War through the prism of one international
organization in its various contexts.
