Launch for the book United States Assistance Policy in Africa – Exceptional Power by Shai A. Divon & Bill Derman

 

Chair – Dr. Katharina Glaab, Department of International Environment and Development Studies, NMBU

Opening remarks – Petter Næss, Executive Director, U.S.-Norway Fulbright Foundation

Book Presentation – Dr. Shai A. Divon & Prof. Bill Derman

Comments – Prof. Morten Bøås, NUPI

Panel Discussion

 

Book Description

From the end of WWII to the end of the Obama administration, development assistance in Africa has been viewed as an essential instrument of US foreign policy. Although many would characterise it as a form of aid aimed at enhancing the lives of those in the developing world, it can also be viewed as a tool for advancing US national security objectives.

Using a theoretical framework based on ‘power’, United States Assistance Policy in Africa examines the American assistance discourse, its formation and justification in relation to historical contexts, and its operation on the African continent. Beginning with a problematisation of development as a concept that structures hierarchies between groups of people, the book highlights how cultural, political and economic conceptions influence the American assistance discourse. The book further highlights the relationship between American national security and its assistance policy in Africa during the Cold War, the post-Cold War, and the post-9/11 contexts.