Vignettes from my half a century : alongside the group of 77

The birth of the Group of 77 (G-77) was the decisive element that launched me on the course of my professional career and life mission devoted to development and the cause of the developing countries. In 1966, as a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, I was in search of a topic for my dissertation. My advisor, Professor Ernst B. Haas, suggested that, while back home in Yugoslavia for the summer break, I contact and consult Leo Mates, a leading Yugoslav political figure and intellectual and one of the architects of the Non-Aligned Movement. Mates spoke to me about the establishment of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the birth of the G-77 and suggested that my thesis be on decision-making and the group system in UNCTAD.