The ‘Reactive State’ as Foreign Aid Giver: A Historical Analysis of the Aid Policy Regime (1953-1999) in South Korea

Abstract

Why are donor governments eager to increase foreign aid and how do they justify aid increases? This essay presents a his-torical insight into the bilateral donors`` rhetoric behind aid expansion. South Korea provides one critical case. Not with standing its impressive aid growth over the last decade, the country has constantly failed to meet its annual commitment by a significant margin. This article argues that such policy behaviour might stem from its legacy as a ``reactive state.`` During the Cold War, the country``s nascent aid policy regime produced expansionary but non-strategic rhetoric, due to its fragmented structure and lack of indigenous policy rationales. Such traits of the policy regime linger today, thereby contin-uously favouring overestimated aid targets and outward-looking aid initiatives.