Free for All: The USSR, UNCTAD, and the Idea of Global Trade

This paper looks at Soviet participation in UNCTAD debates from 1964 until the mid-1980s. It explores in particular the Soviet contribution to the push to open up Western markets to commodities from the socialist bloc and from the Third Word. In spite of the utilitarian and self-interested roots of Soviet engagement with UNCTAD, its consequences were meaningful and transformative. In particular, Soviet representatives contributed to creating support within the UN community to institutionalize the idea that colonialism was directly responsible for global economic inequality.