David Lowe is Chair in Contemporary History and Director of the Centre for Contemporary Histories at Deakin University.

• Introduction; 1. A 'miniature United Nations' at Colombo, 1950; 2. Experimental regionalism; 3. Flexibility, with limits; 4. States, sovereignty and story; 5. So much useful work at so small a cost; 6. Projecting the plan; Coda: partial remembering; Bibliography; Index.

'Lowe's study demonstrates an alternative channel of the voices of the post-independent countries of Asia to the A-A movement of the Bandung Conference (1955). It identifies the Columbo Plan's Consultative Committee as a fora-based international organization grown beyond the original Commonwealth base, where these countries, especially India and Sri Lanka, shaped external and intra-regional aid projects. A great contribution to the growing literature on the history of international development.' Tomoko Akami, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific