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Abstract
This paper examines the extent to which South Korea’s developmental aid programme to Africa can be understood as a form of ‘aid as imperialism’. We argue against the depiction of a crude determinism between the ‘interests of capital’ and the international activism of the South Korean state through aid provision. Drawing on Harvey’s theory of the new imperialism, we argue that, while the structural transformations in the South Korean political economy explain Seoul’s ODA programme at a general level, it is strongly influenced by geopolitical objectives which often undermine South Korea’s ability to pursue distinctly mercantile aims.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Sébastian Rioux, Henk Overbeek, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Notes on Contributors
Soyeun Kim is Assistant Professor in International Development at the Institute for East Asian Studies, Sogang University. Her research interests include the political ecology and political economy of international aid and South–South cooperation. She has co-edited special issues of the Journal of International Development (2011) and the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography (2012), and has published in journals including Geoforum, Global Environmental Politics, the Journal of International Development and Japanese Studies.
Kevin Gray is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of International Relations, University of Sussex. He has published various articles and monographs on East Asian political economy and international relations. He is the author of Korean Workers and Neoliberal Globalisation (2008), Labour and Development in East Asia: Social Forces and Passive Revolution (2015), People Power in an Era of Global Crisis: Rebellion, Resistance, and Liberation (with Barry K. Gills, 2012) and Rising Powers and the Future of Global Governance (with Craig N. Murphy, 2013).
Notes
1. Before 2013 MOFA was known as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
2. The DAC defines ODA as grants and loans to developing countries undertaken by the official sector, with the promotion of economic development and welfare as the main objective. In the case of loans, ODA must contain a grant element of at least 25%.
3. Korea Eximbank, “ODA Statistics.”
4. Jerve and Selbervik, Self-interest and Global Responsibility; and Kalinowski and Cho, “Korea’s Search for a Global Role.”
5. Hayter, Aid as Imperialism; Richards, “The Context of Foreign Aid”; Schulz and Hansen, “Aid or Imperialism?”; and Sogge, Give and Take.
6. Whitfield, The Politics of Aid. See also Easterly, Reinventing Foreign Aid; and Moyo, Dead Aid.
7. Duffield, “The Development–Security Nexus in Historical Perspective,” 28.
8. Taniguchi and Babb, “The Global Construction of Development Models,” 294. See also Sörensen, Challenging the Aid Paradigm; and Wade, “Japan, the World Bank, and the Art of Paradigm Maintenance.”
9. Cowen and Shenton, Doctrines of Development; and Duffield, “The Development–Security Nexus in Historical Perspective,” 27.
10. For an overview of this debate, see Six, “The Rise of Postcolonial States as Donors”; Mawdsley, From Recipients to Donors; Eyben and Savage, “Emerging and Submerging Powers”; and Gore, “Introduction.”
11. Zimmermann and Smith, “Policy Arena”; and Gore, “Introduction.”
12. Saidi and Wolf, Recalibrating Development Co-operation. DAC membership ostensibly represents a set of shared values about what constitutes genuine developmental assistance. Its peer review system seeks to ensure that these values are being upheld by member countries. The importance attached to aid alignment and harmonisation for ‘effective’ delivery is evidenced by a series of high-level fora (Rome in 2003, Paris in 2005 and Accra in 2008).
13. “Africa and China: More than Minerals.” The Economist, 2013. <http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21574012-chinese-trade-africa-keeps-growing-fears-neocolonialism-are-overdone-more/print>; Brautigam, The Dragon’s Gift; and Moyo, Dead Aid.
14. Hilsum, We Love China; Manji and Marks, African Perspectives on China; Kagame, “Why Africa welcomes the Chinese”; author interviews with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Seoul, May and December 2009; author interviews with officials of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF), Seoul, May 2009; author interviews with members of the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF), Seoul, May 2009; and author interviews with members of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Seoul, December 2009.
15. Naím, “Rogue Donors.”
16. Corkin, “Uneasy Allies.”
17. Shinn and Eisenman, China and Africa.
18. Series of anonymous interviews with senior Korean diplomats, a Senior EU official, a senior Korean government think-tank researcher and various Korean and international NGO workers in Seoul and Busan, July to December 2011; and Eyben, “Struggles in Paris.”
19. Clinton, “Keynote at the Opening Session.”
20. Kim, “Bridging Troubled Worlds?,” 815–816.
21. Cha et al., Korea’s Development Experience.
22. As the DAC peer review process itself shows, however, even for the longer established DAC members, questions may be raised as to how far they themselves adhere to DAC norms.
23. Kalinowski and Cho, “Korea’s Search for a Global Role,” 248–249.
24. Harvey, Limits to Capital, 390.
25. Harvey, “Globalization and the ‘Spatial Fix’,” 24.
26. Jessop, “Spatial Fixes,” 161.
27. Brewer, Marxist Theories of Imperialism, 15.
28. Harvey, The New Imperialism, 26.
29. Ashman and Callinicos, “Capital Accumulation and the State System,” 112–113.
30. Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, 26–30.
31. Gray, “US Aid and Uneven Development.”
32. Gray, Korean Workers and Neoliberal Globalization.
33. Korea–Africa Forum, “The 1st Korea–Africa Forum”; and KOAFEC, “KOAFEC Ministerial Conference.”
34. World Bank, “GDP Ranking”; WTO, “Statistics Database”; and UNCTAD, “Inward and Outward Foreign Direct Investment Flows.”
35. KOTRA, “Recent Trends in Export and Import.”
36. In addition to grants, KOICA operates overseas youth volunteer programmes. Such schemes as World Friends Korea provide both development assistance and a short-term fix for the problem of youth unemployment within South Korea itself.
37. Korea Eximbank, “ODA Statistics.”
38. EDCF, “Assistance Data by Country.”
39. EDCF, “ODA Statistics.”
40. OECD, Korea, 16.
41. PSPD, The ODA Policy Report, 13–14.
42. Kim, “DAC Membership,” 46.
43. Chun et al., “South Korea as an Emerging Donor,” 793.
44. Gills and Gills, “South Korea and Globalisation,” 200.
45. Shin, “The Discourse of Crisis,” 431.
46. Kim, “DAC Membership”; and Watson, “Global Korea.”
47. Lee, “Han - Apǔrik’a P'orǒmǔi Ǔimiwa Yi Myǒngbak Chǒngbuǔi Daeap'ǔrik’a Chǒngch'aege Taehan Sogo.”
48. Sulaiman and Herskovitz, “Africa Money.”
49. Ryall and Pflanz, “Land Rental Deal Collapses.”
50. Anyu and Moki, “The Cameroon–South Korea (Mobilong) Diamond Project,” 112.
51. Quansah, “The Bogus STX Korea Deal.”
52. Koh, “Korea to boost Contribution to the World.”
53. Kim and Kang, “Young and Dynamic?,” 785.
54. Kim and Kang, ‘Young and Dynamic?”
55. Kim and Kang, “Dynamic Korea?”
56. Carvalho et al., “Aid to Africa,” 148–149.
57. Gills, Korea versus Korea.
58. Taylor, The Forum on China–Africa Cooperation, 26.
59. Ra, “90nyǒndae Han’guk Ap'ǔrikaǔi Hyǒmnyǒk Bangan”; Shim and Park, “Han’gukǔi dae Ap'ǔrik'a Woegyojǒngch'aek Banghyang”; and Chung, “Han’guggwa Ap'ǔrika Guggagan Gwangyebalchǒnǔi Chedan'gye.”
60. Lee, “Han’gukǔi Dae Ap'ǔrika Woegyo.”
61. “Ban Kimun Yuen Samch’ongjang Sǒngǒundong Shijak(?)” [The Beginning of Ban Ki-Moon's Election Campaign for UN Secretary General]. Minjungǔi Sori [Voice of the People], 2006. http://www.vop.co.kr/A00000039217.html.
62. Beeston et al., “Millions of Dollars and a Piano.”
63. Ministry of Strategy and Finance, White Paper on Hosting of Green Climate Fund, 65–66.
64. Kim, “‘Dawuittgwa Golliat Ssaum’.”
65. Ministry of Strategy and Finance, White Paper on Hosting of Green Climate Fund, 84.
66. See Woods, “The Shifting Politics of Foreign Aid.”
67. OECD, Korea, 16.