Development Cooperation as Economic Diplomacy?

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 203-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjan de Haan

AbstractThis article explores the role of international development cooperation — or aid — in foreign policy and diplomacy. Based on his experience as a practitioner, Arjan de Haan makes the observation that the development debate, and in particular the search for effective aid, has neglected the political role of aid. Moreover, the high political symbolism that aid has obtained, particularly in the last decade, has received relatively little attention. A political perspective on aid is now rapidly becoming more important, especially because of the enhanced importance of global security in setting an aid agenda, and because the old ways of working are — or seem to be — challenged by the rise of China and other countries that were recently (and still are) recipients of aid. An understanding of the diverse political motives behind aid should inform the way that aid effectiveness is measured. The changing politics in which aid is embedded are illustrated with reference to the Netherlands, which used to have one of the most respected aid programmes because of its multilateral emphasis and ‘untying’ of aid, and because Dutch strategic interests have now been made one of the cornerstones of the Netherlands’ new policy. The article hypothesizes that reinforcing progressive principles around international development can be a supportive element of a strengthened diplomacy in the globalized world beyond 2010.

Dragonomics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Carol Wise

This chapter introduces the rise of China in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The author analyzes existing debates around the China-LAC relationship and offers three main points: (1) China will continue to be a mainstay in LAC’s political economy, (2) its presence does not threaten US hegemony in the region, and (3) dependency theory, while a useful method of analysis, fails to account for the role of domestic institutions in diverging economic outcomes between Latin American countries following the China boom. The author argues that the incorporation of Latin America into China’s international development strategy is a critical juncture that highlights the importance of domestic institutions, leadership, and sound policymaking on economic outcomes—and that it is up to Latin American policymakers to take advantage, and minimize the risks, of the trade and investment opportunities offered by China.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyu-Deug Hwang

* The first version of this paper was presented at the Fifth European Conference on African Studies (ecas 5), which was held on June 27-29, 2013 at iscte-iul Lisboa, Portugal. I am deeply grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments on the previous drafts. This work was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund of 2014. The rise of China as an emergent global power in gaining access to energy and mineral resources is one of the main factors for reinforcing Korea’s aid to Africa. Although Korea recognizes the limits of searching for ways of furthering its ‘resource diplomacy’ based primarily on economic pragmatism, the Korean government has strived to utilize foreign aid as a tool for soft power. Korea’s perspective is to play a bigger role in addressing global issues as well as to aspire in becoming a middle power, in the sense that it is not regionally influential in spite of its growing powers. Given that middle power diplomacy tends to pursue a norm-based approach and also provides knowledge and/or ideas relevant to a unique niche that it finds important, it is characteristically soft power-oriented. Taking into account the non-material or ideational factors as well as material ones, constructivists in the field of international relations (ir) recognize the power of ideas, norms, institutions, and interests, which contain the core elements of what Nye calls soft power. In this context, this paper attempts to illuminate some of the important questions as to why and how Korea has endeavored to focus on developing its soft power strategy toward Africa in the new millennium.


2021 ◽  
pp. 351-373
Author(s):  
Nikolay Murashkin

This article revisits the post–World War II evolution of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) over the past 75 years, with a particular focus on the period starting from the 1980s and subsequent changes in Japan’s international development cooperation policies. I address cornerstones such as human security and quality growth, while examining the role of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), shifts and continuities in regional visions and sectoral priorities, such as infrastructure development. I argue that the threefold mix of key drivers behind Japan’s development cooperation has remained consistent, involving developmentalism stemming from Japan’s own experience of successful modernisation from a non–Western background, neo–mercantilism, as well as strategic and geopolitical considerations. The relative weight and interplay of these factors, however, fluctuated in different periods.


Author(s):  
Randall L. Schweller

This chapter works within the neoclassical realist tradition to examine the role of nationalism in foreign policymaking and the implication for the international politics of East Asia. Whereas the rise of China is an important structural factor necessarily affecting states' security policies throughout East Asia, China's rise does not determine these states' security policies. Rather, domestic politics ultimately determines how a state responds to changing security circumstances. In particular, nationalism can drive states to adopt more belligerent policies than warranted by their strategic environment, thus contributing to heightened bilateral conflicts and regional tension. The chapter argues that, in contemporary East Asia, rising China sets the context of policymaking, but domestic politics has been the primary factor shaping policy.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bentley Allan ◽  
Srdjan Vucetic ◽  
Ted Hopf

Existing theories predict that the rise of China will trigger a hegemonic transition and the current debate centers on whether or not the transition will be violent or peaceful. This debate largely sidesteps two questions that are central to understanding the future of international order: how strong is the current Western hegemonic order and what is the likelihood that China can or will lead a successful counter-hegemonic challenge? We argue that the future of international order is shaped not only by material power but also by the distribution of identity across the great powers. We develop a constructivist account of hegemonic transition that theorizes the role of the distribution of identity in international order. In our account, hegemonic orders depend on a legitimating ideology that must be consistent with the distribution of identity at both the level of elites and masses. We map the distribution of identity across nine great powers and assess how this distribution supports the current Western neoliberal democratic hegemony. We conclude that China is unlikely to become the hegemon in the near-term. First, the present order is strongly supported by the distribution of identity in both Western states and rising powers like India and Brazil. Second, China is unlikely to join the present order and lead a transition from within because its authoritarian identity conflicts with the democratic ideology of the present order. Finally, China is unlikely to lead a counter-hegemonic coalition of great powers because it will be difficult to build an appealing, universal ideology consistent with the identities of other great powers.


Author(s):  
Jan Orbie

The European Union (EU) is widely recognized to be a major actor in international development cooperation. First, this chapter discusses key issues and debates in EU development policy. These relate to the importance of the EU in this field, the different objectives that it pursues, the aid budgets at its disposal, and the legal competences vis-à-vis the member states. Secondly, the uniqueness of this policy domain, compared to other EU policies in this volume, is addressed. Specifically, it highlights three distinctive features: the availability of budgetary power outside the EU, the long historical legacy dating back to member states’ colonial past, and the key role of trade as the preferred tool for development. Thirdly, the chapter elaborates two main policy-making domains: the EU as a donor itself and as a coordinator of member states’ policies. Overall, the EU follows the regulatory and distributional modes in its role as a donor, and when it seeks to coordinate member-state policy, the policy coordination mode is to the fore. Moreover, intensive transgovernmentalist features appear in both domains. The conclusion summarizes the main trends and future challenges including the implications of Brexit, the rise of China, and the increasing politicization of aid.


2019 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-808
Author(s):  
Jeremy E. Taylor

Drawing on archival sources in Britain, Singapore, Malaysia, and the United States, this article explores late-colonial anxieties about the influence of Chinese nationalism in Malaya (and especially among students in Chinese-medium schools) in the lead up to self-government in 1957. It demonstrates that the colonial fear of communism in Malaya was not always synonymous with the fear of cultural influence from “new China” and that the “rise of China” in the mid-1950s was viewed as a challenge to colonially sanctioned programs for “Malayanization.” More importantly, in exploring some of the ways in which the colonial state mobilized anti-communist cultural workers from Hong Kong to help counter the perceived threat from China, the article argues that more focus should be placed on the role of colonial agency in shaping “Sinophone” cultural expression in Southeast Asia during this period.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-45
Author(s):  
Siti Nadjiha Hariri

The rise of China in the Pacific region is a threat to Australia as a traditional actor who has an important influence and role in the region. The rise of China pushed Australia to increase its role in the region. The Australian Government responded by channeling funds to Pacific countries to build infrastructure, a step taken by the Australian government is considered to counteract China's influence in the Pacific. With a series of major investment funds and development assistance projects, Australia and China are trying to compete with each other to create a network of their power and influence in the Pacific countries. This journal discusses the role of China-Australia in the competition for influence in the Pacific Region, using qualitative methods aimed at describing and analyzing a phenomenon systematically. This method will explain how China's role in the Pacific region increases and Australia's response as one of the traditional actors in the region. The discussion in this journal is the influence of Australia in the Pacific, the increasing role of China and Australia's response to China's rise in the Pacific Region. Keywords: Australia, China, Pacific Islands Abstrak Kebangkitan Cina di kawasan Pasifik menjadi khusus bagi Australia sebagai aktor tradisional yang memiliki kepentingan dan peran penting dikawasan. Kebangkitan China mendorong Australia untuk meningkatkan kembali perannya dikawasan. Pemerintah Australia merespons dengan akan menyalurkan dana ke negara-negara Pasifik untuk membangun infrastruktur, langkah yang diambil oleh pemerintah Australia ini guna untuk menangkal pengaruh Cina di Pasifik. Dengan bantuan dana investasi utama dan proyek-proyek bantuan pembangunan, Australia dan Cina berusaha saling berlomba-lomba untuk menciptakan jaringan koordinasi dan memfasilitasi mereka di negara-negara Pasifik. Jurnal ini membahas tentang Peran Cina-Australia dalam Persaingan pengaruh di Kawasan Pasifik, dengan mengunakan metode kualitatif yang membahas dan menganalisa fenomena yang sistematis. Metode ini akan menjelaskan cara meningkatkan peran Cina dikawasan Pasifik serta respons Australia sebagai salah satu aktor tradisional di kawasan. Terkait pembahasan dalam jurnal ini yaitu Australia di Pasifik, Peran Cina juga respons Australia terhadap China di Kawasan Pasifik. Kata Kunci: Australia, China, Kepulauan Pasifik


2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (02) ◽  
pp. 2040007
Author(s):  
HSIN-HSIEN WANG ◽  
SHINN-SHYR WANG ◽  
WEI-FENG TZENG

In comparison to hegemony, lesser powers usually struggle for survival between two or more great powers under state power asymmetry, a perpetual phenomenon in international politics. With the rise of China and the increasingly strengthening role of the US in the Asia-Pacific region, it is important to learn how lesser powers manage their relations with the two. To explore this issue, we propose that the strength of state power will constrain the strategies of lesser powers as they choose between the US and China. Borrowing from existing theories and ideas on strategies that include balancing, bandwagoning, and hedging, we argue that the stronger a country’s power, the more likely it will choose a balancing strategy. At the same time, the weaker the country, the more likely that it will go with bandwagoning. Regional middle powers will show varied strategy choices, as they possess a higher degree of freedom in choosing which great power to side with. To validate these arguments, we construct two indicators — differences in trade dependence on the US and China and differences in the voting score consistent with the US and China — to quantify the strategies of lesser powers toward great powers and examine whether the variable of strategies follows the expected pattern. Our analysis shows that countries in the middle of the spectrum of state power demonstrated great freedom in choosing strategies toward the two powers.


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