BRIDGING TROUBLED WORLDS? AN ANALYSIS OF THE ETHICAL CASE FOR SOUTH KOREAN AID

초록

This article critically assesses an ethical case of emerging donors via a case study of South Korea's official development assistance. In so doing, the article sets out two tasks: (i) overcoming the hitherto reductionist reading of emerging donors that uses the established normative framework as a reference point and (ii) addressing a relatively understudied topic of emerging donors within the mainstream aid-ethics debates. To attend to these analytical gaps, the article focuses on two things. First, the case study is discussed within Korea's own historical and institutional context to highlight the latter's significant influence on the way its ethical case for aid provision is presented. Second, this study focuses on the tensions between the stated ethical rhetoric and reality. This study finds that the ethical case is not only an important rationale for Korea's donorship but also strategic for its efforts to achieve the comparative advantage in the increasingly competitive international aid market to advance its national interests. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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