Scholars and practitioners from the fields of economics, political science, sociology, and government discuss the nature and importance of debt in the international system and question whether international debt is a necessary element of international development or a potential root of international economic collapse (and of the demise of the dollar as denominator of the monetary realm). They then turn specifically to the impact of external debt on developing countries, exploring the potential for both positive and negative effects. In the final section of the book they look at the interactions between debtors and creditors when loans begin to sour.