Zhou Hong: Exploring the multiple worlds of international development cooperation

Zhou Hong

　　Director of the International Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences/ Member and Researcher

　　Research Interests: International Politics, Welfare State, European Studies, Foreign Aid

　　Representative works: "Where is the welfare state going", "How the EU is the power", "Foreign Aid Book"

　　Peace and development are the root issues of international relations, or the original or fundamental issues. In the context of the great changes in the world, development-related issues such as the right to development, the mode of development and the organization of development will increasingly become important issues in the field of diplomacy and international relations. A key entry point for understanding these issues is international development assistance, or international development cooperation.

　　The origin and stage of international development assistance

　　There has been a long, often unknown, history of gift exchanges between sovereigns. This exchange usually takes the form of a physical object, subordinated to a wide variety of national interests, and even to the interests of the group that play a leading role in the state.

　　The real formative size and rules of international exchange of gifts took place after World War II. During this time, gift-giving between countries received the title of "foreign aid", which was usually reflected in the gifts of rich countries to poor countries, becoming an integral part of national foreign policy and forming a set of inter-state behaviors. The object and purpose of such foreign aid is to maintain a balance of power or a pattern of interests, for example to maintain unequal trading relations between countries. The practice of foreign aid truly reflects the various intertwined interests in the international community. Formally, this kind of foreign aid, which is dominated by nation-states, is available in kind and in cash, usually bilaterally, with strict conditions attached. These conditions are either used in exchange for equity, or for wealth acquisition, or for grabbing resources, and true altruism is rare.

　　In addition to the aid relations between sovereign states, some of the practice of foreign aid after the Second World War went beyond bilateral and aimed at building strategic camps, such as the Marshall Plan, which is the most typical case. From design to implementation, the Marshall Plan was aimed at establishing the Western camp and consolidating its hegemonic position, and the result was to promote the economic integration of the entire Western Europe and lay out the economic and strategic pattern after World War II.

　　After the 1960s, the development assistance committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD-DAC), a professional organization for development assistance, emerged, dividing the world into a north that provides aid and a south that receives aid, and also makes foreign aid enter a new stage of international development assistance. By integrating bilateral and consolidating various structures of multilateralism, professional aid organizations have formed a complete Western development assistance platform, and the theme of "foreign aid" has also been transformed into "international development cooperation", thus highlighting the orientation of "development" as the goal of aid. The "conditionality" that was enshrined by bilateral donors developed from the early "economic and social conditionality" to the "political ideology condition" after the end of the Cold War.

　　Indeed, the development of international development assistance mentioned above has been accompanied by South-South cooperation. The countries represented by China have been providing assistance to the countries of the South only three years later than the Marshall Plan, and their assistance to Africa has almost coincided with the shift from the associated state system to the aid system of Western European countries. With the development of developing countries themselves, South-South cooperation has grown in importance and has developed a set of experiences, rules and approaches different from those of donors from the North.

　　In the field of international development cooperation, in addition to the traditional donor countries in the North and the emerging donor countries in the South, there are also international multilateral organizations. Years later, the development concept of international multilateral organizations reflects the general perception of the countries of the North. But since the united nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established, more and more goals, approaches and tools have begun to integrate under the framework of the United Nations.

　　In summary, from the end of World War II to the end of the Cold War and into the 21st century, with the rapid changes in the international political and economic pattern, the world has witnessed the driving force and practice of international development cooperation of different natures and diversification. These dynamic subjects are parallel, the relationships between them are complex, and practices overlap in multiple ways.

　　The driving force and interaction of multiple actors of international development assistance

　　Through the activities of different development aid entities, we can see different driving forces. For example, from the perspective of bilateral foreign aid actions, there are driving forces driven by the realization of interests and the transaction of interests, and there are also driving forces by the acquisition of reputation or historical inheritance; from the perspective of multilateral institutions, there are multilateral organizations that are driven by professionalism and authority; from the perspective of South-South cooperation, the integration and interaction of national interests can be seen; from the perspective of multilateral institutions, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, we can see all aspects of efforts to debug consensus and promote consensus realization.

　　It can be seen from this that if the different subjects of international development cooperation are placed in a panoramic time and space, we will see an era of new multilateralism plus multi-driving multi-actors coexisting and superimposing on the platform of international development cooperation. How to recognize and reconcile these differences, how to refine the greatest common denominator in the context of the great changes in the world, and then move towards the common future of mankind are all questions worth pondering. To better understand international development cooperation in multiple worlds, the following points need to be paid attention to.

　　The first is to understand the power source and interaction of multiple actors, which is a complex and meticulous and in-depth research project. Research has only just begun and has not yet reached theoretical conclusions.

　　The second is to develop theoretical concepts and academic language on the basis of pragmatic research. For a long time, official development assistance (ODA) has been used as a measure to recognize different sources and different forms of international development assistance and its effectiveness. But when the vision of international development began to shift to a broader field, sustainable development and the breadth of its resources were put on the agenda, the concept of "official general support for sustainable development" (TOSSD) was proposed, international development cooperation began to truly transcend the traditional boundaries, and more actors were accepted from concept to action, and research entered a new field. New topics have emerged in large numbers, and resources and related actors related to international development cooperation have entered the research horizon. It can be said that this is a period of transition from practice to theory, and the transformation of research is not waiting for me.

　　Third, we must conscientiously seek commonalities and characteristics among the main bodies of international development cooperation, as well as their relevance and interrelationship. Both the countries of the North and the South have differences, correlations and interrelations in this area, from which the greatest common denominator must be extracted. In many professional international conferences, the participants in the discussion may include Chinese, Indians, Germans, and Americans, whose views may differ, but the result of the joint discussion is another neutral conclusion, that is, the result of the greatest common divisor has been extracted. This common conclusion is not completely absent from you losing and I win, but more often you have me and I have you. This greatest common denominator is a parallel symbiosis with bilateral international development assistance and a transcendence of bilateral development assistance.

Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily Author: Zhou Hong