Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption, and the Third World's Environmental Legacy

Pradip Sarbadhikari is a political science professor at Lakehead
University in Thunder Bay.

This book, a milestone publication in the field of international debt,
presents profoundly disturbing material as it relates the catastrophe of
Third World debt. The legal doctrine of odious debts, which was
formulated before the Spanish–American war, is chilling to today’s
creditors: “If a despotic power incurs a debt not for the needs or in
the interest of the State, but to strengthen its despotic regime, to
repress the population that fights against it, this debt is odious for
the population of all the state.”

Adams carefully scrutinizes the actors in this real-life drama: the
World Bank, the IMF, expert credit agencies, and commercial banks, among
lenders; and governments, despots, and the military, among borrowers.
Her incisive critique is complemented by prescriptions for a just
resolution that would enhance democracy and accountability in the Third
World.

The book is divided into four parts: Part 1 discusses the impact of
odious debts on the environment and economy; Part 2 analyzes the “easy
lenders”; Part 3 is a devastating critique of the “eager
borrowers”; and Part 4 discusses the role of odious debts and their
impact on the people.

Adams, an economist and former World Bank official, is Executive
Director of Probe International, a think-tank she founded in 1980. At
the recent Rio U.N. Conference, she was a leading spokesperson for the
citizens’ environmental groups. Although Adams weaves much scholarly
material into the text, she tells the story in lucid, almost
conversational language. Both general readers and students of
contemporary international affairs will find this book fascinating. Even
those who do not share the author’s radical perspective on
international debt and environmental concerns can read with profit this
controversial book.