Changing Donor Policy and Practice in Civil Society in the Post-9/11 Aid Context

Abstract

This article argues that the global ‘War on Terror’ regime has contributed in complex and differentiated ways to the increasing securitisation of development policy and practice. The global ‘War on Terror’ regime refers to a complex and contradictory weaving of discourses, political alliances, policy and legislative changes, institutional arrangements and practices. This is manifest in aid rhetoric, policy discourse, institutional convergence and programming. These processes have in turn affected the way donor agencies engage with non-governmental actors. On the one hand they have led to new forms of control over charitable agencies; on the other hand they have created new opportunities for interaction and resource access to ‘newly discovered’ civil society actors such as Muslim organisations and communities. The article explores these issues through the lens of development policy and practice by four donor countries, namely, the USA, Sweden, the UK and Australia.