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The East Asian development success story challenges the very notion of Third World and the concept of economic takeoff and social change. The Francophone research literature has contributed little to the analysis of this unique historical phenomenon and to the international debate over the universality versus the specificity of the industrialization process and of the possible conditions for catching up for East Asian newly-industrialized countries (NICs). Moreover, there was little reflection over whether or not these Asian experiences would confirm the Western interpretation of nineteenth to twentieth century economic history and of how far they could either challenge or even redefine the industrialization and globalization paradigms.