Samir Amin has a worldwide reputation as one of the foremost radical thinkers of our generation. Among his many institutional roles, he has been Director of IDEP (the United Nations African Institute for Planning) from 1970 to 1980; the Director of the Third World Forum in Dakar, Senegal; and a co-founder of the World Forum for Alternatives. His most famous works are Accumulation on a World Scale and Unequal Development. Among his recent books in English are Re-reading the Post-War World: An Intellectual Itinerary (1994) and Empire of Chaos (1993). Ali El Kenz is Professor in Sociology in Nantes University, France. His work is focused on Arab research in the social sciences and he has published books, chapters and articles in both French and Arabic.
