1. These layered connections and contests have shaped the subsequent waves of restructuring of extractive economies nationally -from the post-independence waves of nationalization, to the 'neo-liberal' privatizations of the 1980s through to the current reinstating of the state as a development partner in 'public-private partnerships'. They are also at the core of contests over the definition of 'development', as a responsibility of private extractive corporations, development institutions and NGOs, or that of the state;plays into the, relative, breadth and scope of global regulatory frameworks, themselves shaped by intense economic and political struggles between the US and Asia (Garapon & Servan Schreiber,1978
2. away from the costs -economical, political, reputational -of the re-negotiation of extractive contracts, their contests in arbitrational and jurisdictional settings, including by third parties like local communities. The vindicated challenge thus, of 'levelling the playing field' is to foster the emergence of trade-oriented national state elites but also to control, rationalize and open up the small markets of insiders -such as those multi-tasked members of the 'Africa Club' in Paris away from the stigmata of affairisme. What made the 'Africa' Bar in Paris offshore yet deeply connected was the tension between the need to rely on local structures of power to do business on the continent, and the strategy of evading local legal institutions -deemed inefficient, corrupted. But at stake is also the intense competition at play in this new wave of globalization into the continent, with international corporate law firms vying to secure their turf in a volatile and fragile market, against local competitors. The stake now;Law is at the core of these developments. Initiatives aiming at transforming the asymmetrical relationship between African states and private Northern corporations -like Connex or the African Legal Facility -stem from the need to stabilize foreign investments
3. The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation;D See;American Economic Review,2001