Foreign Aid and Diplomacy

There are a variety of words used today to describe the transfer of financial and other resources from one country to another, or even from a non-state donor to a recipient country, including “foreign aid,” “official development assistance,” “humanitarian aid,” “development cooperation,” and even “finance for development.” Each of these terms represents a particular lens through which the transfer of resources from one country to another can be understood. As this practice increased, following the end of World War II, diplomats have found themselves drawn into activities such as identifying development needs, negotiating bilateral, multilateral, and trilateral development assistance agreements, and managing country relations often marred by the impact of inequality in donor-recipient relations. This entry discusses the evolution of aid as a foreign policy tool, paying attention to the negotiations on aid effectiveness and the changing international dynamics, norms, and actors that have contributed to the ongoing transition from a Western-led aid regime to a global partnership on development cooperation.