The World Bank in a Changing World: Selected Essays and Lectures: Volume III

Like its two predecessors with the same title, this volume attempts to analyze how the World Bank is dealing with the major challenges it encounters as a result of constant changes in the world it serves. The now complete three-volume series on the World Bank in a Changing World is written by a Bank insider who, as the Bank's Vice President, then Senior Vice President, and General Counsel for a period extending over more than fifteen years (from 1 August 1983 to 15 October 1998), was a member of the Bank's senior management and attended almost all the meetings of its Board of Executive Directors. With this background, the purpose of the book is not simply to provide information, especially in areas that are often not known, misunderstood or not adequately appreciated outside the Bank; it also analyzes this information in depth, particularly from policy and legal perspectives, with a view to drawing lessons that may be useful both to the Bank and its member countries in making their future choices. Every effort has been made to present the facts as objectively and accurately as possible; the analysis and conclusions reflect, however, the author's own convictions.

Both in its legal analysis and in its minute descriptions of developments within and outside the Bank, the three volumes of this book present a unique source of knowledge that only an author with the qualifications and varied experience of Ibrahim F.I. Shihata could write.

The book's title should not hide the diversity of the topics it covers and their relevance to those interested not only in development issues but also in matters of international law, international organizations, international relations, environment, human rights and institutional reform, especially legal, judicial, civil service and banking sector reform.