In 1989 the World Bank commissioned the Brookings Institution to prepare a history of the Bank as part of the commemoration of the Bank's fiftieth anniversary. Originally planned for publication in 1994, the two volume work, The World Bank: Its First Half Century, was published in 1997. When the Office of the Historian was established at the beginning of 1993, the task of liaison between the Bank and Brookings and the authors fell to the Historian. This series documents the evolving relationship between the Bank and the Brookings Institution's World Bank History Project, both before and after the establishment of the Historian's Office.
The first subseries, the chronological General Files, shows the genesis of the idea for a history (including copies of documents on the Bank's history dating back to December 1967), the funding of the project, and the administration of the relationship between the Bank and the Brookings Institution. Files contain a transcript of the meeting of the project advisory committee in 1993.
An Internal Review Group was established by the Bank in 1993 to read and comment on each chapter produced by the project. The Office of the Historian served as secretary for the group, both sending out chapters for review and transmitting the group members' comments to the project. The second subseries is the correspondence of the historian with the group and with the project.
The Office of the Historian conducted its own oral history program at the same time as the World Bank History Project wasinterviewing people for the fiftieth anniversary volumes. Each program provided some copies of interviews to the other, and the third sub-series contains a file about the interviews, including lists of persons interviewed by the project, and duplicate copies of rough transcripts of some project interviews, including those with World Bank Group presidents A.W. Clausen, Barber B. Conable, and Lewis T. Preston.
The fourth subseries is the draft of the history, arranged by volume and thereunder by chapter. Nocopy exists for chapter 8 of volume II. The copies are not annotated.
Series consists of records relating to World Bank Group security policy, planning, coordination, and response activities, and James L. Theodores's role leading this work as Field Coordinator (FC) between 1981 and 1987. Records include: official Bank policies and procedures on security in the field and other materials authored by Theodores and distributed to Bank staff; external publications on security and terrorism; undated and uncredited briefing papers on hijackings, letter and parcel bombs, and telephone threats; consultants' reports on World Bank Group security policy and planning; staff guidelines regarding street crime, burglary, vehicles and travel, and fire protection; reports and summaries of political incidents, security advisories, and incidents involving Bank staff; correspondence regarding specific travel bans; work program and other materials related to the Field Office Improvement Program developed by Theodores upon taking over the position of FC; and the FC transition program that resulted in the transfer of the Field Security System to the General Service Department's (GSD) Security Division upon Theodores's departure from the World Bank in 1987. Some records also relate back to Theodores's time as Resident Representative in Kabul, Afghanistan (1977-1980) and the various security plans and guidelines he followed and enforced.
Series also includes records related to the hijacking of Pakistan International Airlines PK326 in March 1981. One of the hostages was World Bank staff member Jeffrey Balkind. Theodores served as the coordinator and major spokesman for the World Bank's informal Crisis Management Team during the hostage taking. Records include regular updates on the hijacking, primarily in the form of wires from the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Resident Representative in Kabul, Afghanistan. Security updates authored by Theodores presumably for internal World Bank consumption are also included.
Records in this series related to the hijacking were subsequently used by Balkind for research purposes. A letter from Balkind to Theodores thanking him for the use of these records is included as is the packaging used to courier the records back to Theodores. The packaging is dated June 26, 1996. A complete draft of Balkind's unpublished history of the hijacking, "Life and Death on a Tarmac: The Hijacking of PK326" is included. Other chapters of the book that were reviewed and annotated by Theodores are also included, as is correspondence between Theodores and Balkind.
Records related to the May 1985 abduction of consultant Dr. Robert Williams, his wife Jenny Williamson, and their driver are also included. Williamson was engaged in work on a World Bank supervised project in Pakistan. Records include initial reports and notes on the incident and regular updates, including those made to senior staff World Bank staff.