Meaning versus measurement: why do ‘economic’ indicators of poverty still predominate?

It is virtually undisputed that poverty is multi-dimensional. However, ‘economic’ or monetary measures of poverty still maintain a higher status in key development indicators and policy. This article is concerned with the apparent contradiction between the consensus over the meaning of poverty and the choice of methods with which to measure poverty in practice. A brief history of the meaning and measurement of poverty is given, and it is argued that ‘economic’ determinism, while it has gradually retreated from centrality in the meaning of poverty, has continued to dominate the measurement of poverty. This is followed by a section that contrasts the relative merits of ‘economic’ and ‘non-economic’ measures of poverty. The question is posed: why do ‘economic’ measures of poverty still have a higher status than non-economic measures?     

How national security considerations affect technology transfer

The transfer of United States high technology to the Soviet Union shows that, contrary to many assumptions, international transfer of technology can heighten national rivalries and increase military tensions. Many advanced technologies have important military applications. The Soviet Union has acquired much such technology from the west and then has used it to strengthen Soviet military capabilities vis-a-vis the west. This approach to international technology transfer supports general Soviet priorities in science and technology, which emphasize military power rather than international commercial competitiveness or domestic social welfare. The United States and its allies have responded by sharing militarily applicable technology among themselves while denying its export to the Soviet bloc. As of September 1988, neither the Soviet policy of glasnost nor progress in the US-USSR arms control negotiations seems to have changed the primarily military bent of Soviet policy on technology transfer. Sumnner Benson, Ph. D. deputy director for Technology Cooperation and Security in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and is senior assistant to the director of the Defense Technology Security Administration     

Pluralising global governance: Analytical approaches and dimensions

This paper argues that a significant reframing of global poverty is likely to emerge in the next decade as world poverty becomes less about the transfer of aid and more about domestic distribution and thus domestic politics. This proposition is based on a discussion of the shift of much of global poverty towards middle-income countries. There are questions arising related to how countries are classified and to administrative capacities, as well as to domestic political economy, but it is argued that many of the world’s extreme poor already live in countries where the total cost of ending extreme and even moderate poverty is not prohibitively high as a percentage of gdp. By 2020, even on fairly conservative estimates, most of world poverty may be in countries that do have the domestic financial resources to end at least extreme poverty; this could imply a reframing of global poverty.