An optimistic assessment of the prospects for a new international order - acting as a counter-blast to global pessimism. The text explains how the international system operates, the pressures it faces and the changes it must undergo, and offers concrete ideas to re-frame international relations, foreign aid and humanitarian intervention, without using jargon or simplistic judgements.

Michael Edwards is the Director of the Ford Foundation's Governance and Civil Society Unit in New York.

Introduction: the Co-operative Imperative * Part One: Looking Back - 1945 and All That: a Brief History of International Co-operation * How do Countries Grow? It's the Polity, Stupid! * It's not Size that Matters: Development Projects Re-examined * Matters of Life and Death: the Record of Humanitarian Intervention * Summary: Sticks, Carrots and Room to Manoeuvre * Part Two: Looking Forward - Creativity plus Opportunity: a New Formula for Foreign Aid * Humanising Capitalism: Which Way Forward? * Light but Firm: the Future of Global Governance * Building Constituencies for Change: the Rise and Fall of Third-World Charity * The Getting of Wisdom: Institutional Reform and Personal Revolution * Conclusions: How Can I Help? * References and Notes * Index