Perspectives on European Development Cooperation: Policy and Performance of Individual Donor Countries and the EU

With the end of the Cold War, the international environments changed dramatically with consequences also for development co-operation and North-South relations in general. However, the impact varied from one donor country to another. The policies of most European governments became less affected than those of the remaining superpower. This volume takes stock of such changes into the new millennium. It starts with an extensive overview and analysis of the changes that have taken place in the international environments and development thinking in the past decade, drawing the lines further back, and identifying the main features of the new international development agenda. The country studies focus on continuity and change in the aid policy of individual European donor countries, with an emphasis on overall objectives set for aid and norms guiding its distribution geographically and on purposes. The performance is also scrutinized. This volume, unique in its kind, includes studies of the European countries suchas Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. The contributors are specialists within their respective countries. It concludes with a scrutiny of the policy of the European Union.