The rise and demise of national development and the origins of post-Cold War capitalism

This article begins by outlining the way in which the crisis of colonialism, the universalisation of the nation-state system, and the deepening of the Cold War, provided the context for the rise and consolidation between the 1940s and the 1970s, of the national development project, which naturalised the nation-state as the key unit of both capitalist and socialist development worldwide. This leads to an examination of postcolonial and post-development critiques and a discussion of the implications of the onset of globalisation for the project of national development. It is concluded that the notion of post-Cold War capitalism (in contrast to the idea of the postcolonial condition) more effectively captures the global and the specific aspects of the present historical juncture and the challenges that confront every effort to articulate alternatives to the globalisation project. The immediate origins of post-Cold War capitalism are traced to a number of interconnected trends in the 1970s. In particular, the modification of the overall shape of the political economy of the Cold War by the US paved the way for the elaboration and eventual consolidation of the US-centred globalisation project. Yet as the global market unfolds the instrumentalities and capacities of states are reconfigured and diluted. Although the new era of post-Cold War capitalism continues to be characterised by an open political horizon, where movements like the Zappatistas can offer an alternative, there is still a lack of serious systemic challenges (of either a reactionary, reformist or a revolutionary character) to the prevailing global order.