Authors: Lumsdaine, David¹; Schopf, James C.²

Source: The Pacific Review, Volume 20, Number 2, June 2007 , pp. 221-255(35)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract:

This article reviews Korean foreign development aid policies, setting them in the context of evolving development assistance policies in OECD countries during the last fifty years. Korean foreign assistance levels remained quite low throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but have risen significantly in the last seven years, and the paper asks why this is so. Historically, strong support for aid has been linked primarily to humanitarian motives; the countries which have emphasized such motives have maintained much stronger aid programmes. The paper argues that Korea did not emphasize these rationales for aid very strongly, and that this, together with the weak development of Korean civil society, resulted in low levels of support for aid and low aid levels through the 1990s. However, a recent rise in voluntarism, the expanded political influence of NGOs, and strong popular support for assistance to the poor, both at home and abroad, signal a shift in civic values, and can account for the current increase in humanitarian aid to North Korea and the developing world. Korean foreign assistance policy, then, shows great promise, and has the potential to serve as a model for newly developed countries, while providing Korea with lasting prestige.

Keywords: Korea; Overseas Development Assistance; North Korean aid; NGOs; democratization; development; humanitarian values

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09512740701306881

Affiliations: 1: KDI Graduate School of Policy and Management, Yale University, 2: Political Science and International Relations, Korea University,

Publication date: 2007-06-01

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