A fundamental introduction to the central topics of development policy: globalization, state failure, poverty and hunger, population and migration, economy and environment. The best introduction to development policy from both German and international perspectives. What is underdevelopment? Is it a consequence of colonialism or unjust trade conditions? Has the North-South conflict become a hollow formula? What does development even mean? What is sustainable development? To what extent do environmental crises threaten our natural foundations of life? What does the feminization of poverty or global structural policy mean? Is globalization a promise of salvation or a work of the devil for the Third World? Why has development aid been condemned as lethal aid? These are the old and new questions that Franz Nuscheler addresses.