Paul Collier examines the dire situation of the world’s poorest one billion; the countries at the bottom of the global economic system. These countries have not just remained poor over the years, but have actually failed to grow. He devotes more attention to Africa; positing that the face of global poverty has shifted with China, India and some other countries having surged ahead. (It is quite nice to have watched China announce its victory over absolute poverty just recently, having lifted over 100 million people out of extreme poverty in the last eight years). The question would remain “why have some countries made progress while others have refused to grow?” Collier identifies four development traps that constitute impediments to growth in the bottom-billion countries. The first is the conflict trap: countries in the bottom billion are constantly threatened with violence, coups and civil wars - all of which are detrimental to economic development. Second is the natural re...