Should previously colonized countries continue to use traditional paths to development, or should they be assisting in finding their own way by former colonial masters?

In this treatise, the author expounds on the difficulties faced by previously colonized countries as they attempt to make their economies economically viable. She gives concrete examples of countries that have tried free trade, imposing levies on their natural resource extraction, privatism, and the path of the newly industrialized countries (NICs) such as Brazil and Taiwan. She points out that while these attempts may have brought about some growth, the growth has been uneven in the case of free trade; at the expense of the impoverishment of large sectors of the population in the case of privatization and the NICs, or as in the case of levies, occasioned retaliatory measures by the particular foreign companies involved. Using Cuba, she demonstrates the constraints that economic backwardness can impose on foreign policy attempts. She does a detailed exegesis in South Africa emphasizing the unevenness of the development there and the disenfranchisement of the majority black population. The author stresses the need for needs-based diversification and she calls on former colonial powers to issue compensatory packages.