Routledge Humanitarian Studies Series. London; New York: Routledge, 2017. xv, 214 pp. (Graphs.) US$140.00, cloth. ISBN 978-1-138-69671-6.
Drawing on public records and 50 in-depth interviews, Corbett’s book offers a detailed and long-reaching history of Australia’s foreign aid. The peculiarity of this publication can be found in the dilemma addressed in the book’s subtitle. Corbett states that “foreign aid is a budget appropriation” (xii), and as such it needs legitimacy vis-à-vis the electoral constituency; its legitimation has to be fabricated and maintained. In adopting this angle, Corbett shifts the lens of analysis away from projects on the grounds and recipient countries, back to the domestic political decision-making processes. Turning his gaze to the domestic side of foreign aid, Corbett focuses on what he terms “court politics,” an agent-centred analysis that seeks to uncover what is fundamentally presented as an “elite game played by bureaucrats, politicians, key lobbyists and intellectuals” (5).
The first and most conspicuous part of the book is an admittedly “descriptive account” (7) of the convoluted history of the politics of Australian foreign aid management and its shifting purposes. The six chapters making up this first section provide a chronological depiction of Australian foreign aid across a span of time ranging from the 1950 to the early 2010s, from the Cold War to the “war on terror.” Each chapter deals with a particular government and how specific political decisions shaped Australian foreign aid as it got institutionalized, transformed, absorbed into other government agencies, and gained and lost partial or complete autonomy. Taken singularly, the chapters open a window into the international and domestic context that shaped Australian foreign aid policies at specific times, as well as the personal relations among key players. As a whole, this long history enables Corbett to find certain historical patterns, the most relevant of which are the vulnerability of foreign aid in periods of domestic financial restraint, and the progressive spending in this sector as it becomes a means to several ends (especially in foreign policy). It is contradictions such as these that put the issue of legitimacy at the centre of Corbett’s scrutiny.
The second part of the book is an analytical attempt to give coherence to the extensive narrative that precedes it. Each of the three chapters retells the main story through the lens of a particular kind of legitimacy. In chapter 7 it is the changing definition of national interest that set the tone to foreign aid’s legitimacy, as the humanitarian ends went side by side with issues of international prestige, trade and commercial benefits, and security. All these variables, historical as much as politico-ideological, shaped the amount of money aid agencies received and the hierarchy of priorities over the projects to fund. Chapter 8 articulates the role that the increasing professionalization of the foreign aid sector within Australia’s public service played in the carving out of legitimacy in the eyes of the public and colleagues in cognate departments. Chapter 9 teases out the different political arenas in which foreign aid had to find its legitimation by aligning itself with other parts of the government. Here, the specific rivalries that fraught the chapters in the first part of the book are given coherence through an explanation of the administrative structure upon which foreign aid rests.
One of the most valuable perspectives this book offers is that it places foreign aid within the larger environment of Australia’s public service, and especially its relationship with prime ministers and the ministries of Treasury, Foreign Affairs, and Defence. Corbett convincingly shows how the competition, rivalries, and alliances between and within state agencies played a significant role in the fortunes of the foreign aid program and its position within Australian society and international politics. Yet, this perspective is often overridden by what resembles an old-fashioned history of great men and their political deeds. “Court politics” emerge from this book more as personal relations than as a political field. Such a view affects historical causation, which often remains implicit. Corbett gives ample space to particular characters, but it is just as clear from his own narrative how much the changing international context influenced political decisions and the provision or denial of legitimacy to the aid agencies.
Australia’s Foreign Aid Dilemma is not easy to assess. Corbett says (9) that he has two audiences in mind (one for each session), but it is not clear whom this volume is pitched to. The history of Australia’s aid agency is not enough, per se, to generate interest outside those areas influenced by its regional power. As the author candidly admits, this work is a piece of a larger puzzle that should involve similar studies of other countries’ foreign aid programs (208). In the reviewer’s view, it is the analytical shyness that holds the book back. For instance, Corbett seems to be disapproving of so-called “post-development” perspectives that criticize the efficacy of foreign aid efforts (4, 168), but does not take the chance to say explicitly how his perspective challenges post-development critiques. Australia’s Foreign Aid Dilemma is a sobering tale of the realpolitik kind, but it remains unclear whether this is because of the choice to present a rather matter-of-fact history, the framework adopted, or something else.
Dario Di Rosa
The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji