How did the developing states try to harness the UN-platform for human rights to bring about change in the international economic order during the cold war? This study delivers answers to that question. It examines the bitter quarrel about the formulation of and the connection between the two most relevant human rights in that perspective: the right of all peoples to self-determination and the right to development. Drawing from the methodology of conceptual history, this international history interfaces with international law, practical philosophy and international political economy. It...