Much attention has been focused on the BICs (that is, Brazil, India and China) and how they are changing global politics and economics. However, there is also a further tier of emerging, or new, middle powers ‘beyond the BICs' that are playing a more prominent role in regional and global...

Over the last decade, the theory that poverty in the world's poorest regions could be alleviated by providing small loans to micro-entrepreneurs has become increasingly popular. This volume examines the effectiveness of this theory when put into practice. The book presents empirical evidence...