John Cavanagh Associate

Our people — Advisor

John Cavanagh was a TNI Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies from 1983-1999, then IPS Director from 1999-2021, and is now a Senior Adviser at IPS. He worked as an international economist for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (1978-1981) and the World Health Organization (1981-1982).

John is also the co-author of 12 books and numerous articles on the global economy, including The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed (2022, Beacon Press), written with Robin Broad. John has a BA from Dartmouth College and a MA from Princeton University.

Latest work

Gold for Export? … or Water & Food for Life? The Case of Gold Mining in El Salvador
With the rapid expansion of gold mining, social movements in many countries have gathered force to oppose the mining. Environmental concerns have been central to this opposition. But the opposition has grown into a larger critique of “what is development?” posing corporate-led export growth against peasant-led local agriculture.
Paper by

John Cavanagh

Robin Broad
Publication date: 1 January 2013
Development redefined: How the market met its match
This book takes readers on a journey through the rise and fall of the one-size-fits-all model of development that richer nations began imposing on poorer ones three decades ago. It brings into question the entire conventional notion of “development,” and offers readers a new lens through which to view the way forward for poorer nations and poorer people.
Book by

John Cavanagh

Robin Broad
Publication date: 25 September 2008
Beyond Bretton Woods Alternatives to the Global Economic Order
A series of provocative essays by leading researchers and activists on three crucial questions: what kind of development should new global economic institutions promote, what are the viable alternatives to the World Bank and IMF and what other global economic institutions are needed to promote a more just trading order with greater social and ecological responsibility.
Report by

Daphne Wysham

John Cavanagh

Marcos Arruda
Publication date: 8 July 2008