International Development Assistance

This book provides a comprehensive search for the basic political drivers of international development cooperation, based on the policy and performance of the OECD countries from the early 1960s to the present. The author focuses on the stated and implemented policies of the four so-called frontrunners and the Western hegemon, scrutinizing the changing trends in the justifications, objectives and guidelines set for the policy and their evolving performance vis-à-vis the international ODA target. Through extensive research, the work examines predominant world-views, societal value systems and foreign policy traditions, in order to find the policy drivers that vary nation to nation and how development assistance has evolved globally.

Olav Stokke is Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway. He is the author of The UN and Development (2009)

This is a substantial and welcome addition to the numerous works ... by Olav Stokke. ... The four long chapters on the frontrunners are very well written and informative ... . They should be especially useful to professionals and students.

Roger Riddell, Oxford Policy Management, Forum for Development Studies (Vol. 46, No. 3, 2019)