Theories of modernisation and social change have been increasingly challenged during the past decade by events in the Middle East and other areas of the developing world. Leaders of oil-rich nations are choosing to industrialise but not to westernise, and Islamic revivals are shaping new patterns of political and social development. For example, improvements in female status can no longer be regarded as the inevitable concomitants of industrialisation; to the contrary, gender inequality may actually be exacerbated by national resurgences of religious and cultural traditions which often accompany planned social change.1

Race relations have become one of the most sensitive of international issues. They have been transformed from the domestic concern of single countries to a matter of world concern. The story of this transformation is almost too well-known for comment. It grew from a massive revulsion against fascist racialism, the decline of white dominance, the emergence of new states from colonial empires, and the growing dependence of developed countries on the raw materials of the less developed. The United Nations Organisation has, in addition, given the non-white majority a forum from which they can condemn countries maintaining racial stratification. It is clear, therefore, that a breakdown in racial prejudice would not only ease some world tensions, but is a desirable end in itself.