Security, the War on Terror, and official development assistance

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and the subsequent declaration of a War on Terror, several international issues have been affected, including the disbursement of official development assistance. This paper examines the connections between development aid, security, and the War on Terror and analyses the manner in which these linkages are impacting on the orientation, understanding, performance, and efficacy of existing official development assistance discourses, and assesses the emergence or otherwise of a new securitisation and politicisation of aid. The paper draws linkages between official development assistance, security, and terrorism, and applies this analysis to a discussion that explores how in a practical and operational sense these multiple dynamics have played out in the disbursement of aid by Japan, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and China.