Shifting Purpose
| Published date | 01 December 2009 |
| Date | 01 December 2009 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200906400409 |
| Author | Gregory Chin |
| Subject Matter | Canada and Asia |
Gregory Chin
Shifting purpose
Asia’s rise and Canada’s foreign aid
| International Journal | Autumn 2009 | 989 |
This article analyzes Canada’s foreign aid relations with Asia, including the
range of motivations and reasons why the Canadian government, at this
historical juncture, should rethink how and why it gives scarce public
resources to promote, among other things, the wellbeing of people in Asian
countries and strategic ties with Asia. This includes addressing not just
developmental purposes in Canada’s aid relations with Asia but other—
namely diplomatic and commercial—purposes. The basic argument is that
Canada has a tradition of successfully leveraging its foreign aid relations with
Asian countries for a comprehensive set of foreign policy objectives, but that
more recently Ottawa has been slow to respond to Asia’s dramatic evolution
and to key shifts in the global order more broadly.1Canada’s aid strategy has
Gregory Chin is an assistant professor in the department of political science and faculty of
graduate studies at York University, where he teaches global politics, comparative politics,
and east Asian political economy. He is also a senior fellow at the Centre for International
Governance Innovation (CIGI). He thanks Ercel Baker, Lisa Chin, and Bernie Frolic for their
suggestions; David Malone for his comments as discussant at the “symposium on Canada-
Asia relations,” Ottawa, 30 March 2009; and Yuen Pau Woo and Ryan Touhey for their
editorial guidance.
1 On the rising powers and shifting g lobal order, see Andrew F. Cooper and Agata
Antkiewiz, e ds.,
Emerging Po wers in Global Governance
(Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier
University Press, 2008); and Gregory Chin and Eric Helleiner, “China as a creditor: A
rising financial power?”
Journal of International Affairs
62 (fall-winter 2008): 87-102.
| Gregory Chin |
| 990 | Autumn 2009 | International Journal |
not been adjusted adequately to allow for the effective recalibration of
Canada’s foreign relations with the rising powers of that region.
While it has become fashionable in the international donor community
to speak of the issue-area as “developmental assistance” or “development
cooperation,” it is suggested that development—the pursuit of economic and
social progress in low-income countries—is only one of the purposes of
foreign aid. Foreign aid is understood here as a po licy tool, which can be
used to achieve a number of purposes. The purpose of aid is evident not only
in the goals that are set by donor governments, but in the actions that are
taken on amounts given, country allocation, and use. Carol Lancaster has
recently outlined that foreign aid is used for four main purposes: diplomatic,
developmental, humanitarian relief, and commercial.2Whereas the second
and third purposes are the least controversial, the first and fourth are more
so. However in the real world of development, all four purposes are in play,
and govern ments usually have mixed purposes for providing fore ign aid.
Canada is no exception.
The article concludes with policy recommendations on how Canada can
adjust strategi cally to the rise of China and India as rising powers and as
emerging donors by reenvisioning economic diplomacy as one dimension of
aid policy.
REASONS FOR CONCERN
The shifting global order
Canada’s foreign aid relations with Asia take place within the country’s
broader foreign policy framework. Asia’s dramatic economic and social
development over the past three decades presents Canada with a number of
foreign policy challenges. One is the question of the continuing relevance of
Canada as an international partner in Asia. Another is whether the rise of
China and India will change the international system and the architecture of
international organizations that Canada has helped build since the end of
the Second World War. Asia’s economic rise raises concerns about whether
Canada has a clear sense of purpose or well-identified priorities in pursuing
its relations with the world’s most dynamic region.If current predictions are
correct and Asia continues along its overall upward growth path, rationality
2 A f ifth purpos e of aid is cultur al but that is us ually less prominent. See Carol
Lancaster,
Foreign A id: Diplomacy, D evelopment, Domes tic Politics
(Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2007), 12-18.
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