Do-Gooders at the End of Aid

Scandinavian Humanitarianism in the Twenty-First Century

Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée, Kristian Bjørkdahl

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781108488792
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108807852
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Human Rights
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Scandinavian countries are routinely considered exceptional for their commitment to development cooperation, peace mediation, and humanitarian action. This book highlights how the political culture of Scandinavia is indeed characterized by the idea of doing good on the world stage, but then shows how this 'Scandinavian humanitarian brand' is an asset that policymakers and others can capitalize on to legitimize policy interventions and ideas, or to advance commercial, diplomatic, and security interests. Providing case studies from all Scandinavian countries, this book shows how the brand is made, reinforced, and used in a variety of policy contexts, from foreign aid and humanitarian assistance; to military operations, peace-building, and mediation; to migration policy, global health, and international cooperation. A key objective of the book is to explain why the Scandinavian humanitarian brand retains such apparent resilience in a time when Scandinavia's characteristic approach to world affairs seems challenged from many sides at once. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: On the Resilience of the Scandinavian Humanitarian Brand
• 1 Fantasy, Distinction, Shame: The Stickiness of the Nordic ''Good State'' Brand
• 2 The Do-Gooders' Dilemma: Scandinavian Asylum and Migration Policies in the Aftermath of 2015
• 3 The Nobel Savage: Norwegian Do-Goodery as Tragedy
• 4 A Historical View on the Nordic ''Peace Brand'': Norway and Sweden: Partners and Competitors in Peace
• 5 Sweden's Weapons Exports Paradox
• 6 Danish Development Cooperation: Withering Heights
• 7 How Democracy Promotion Became a Key Aim of Sweden's Development Aid Policy
• 8 From Unconditional Solidarity to Conditional Evaluability: Competing Notions of Conditionality and the Swedish Aid Model
• 9 The Pragmatarian Style: Environmental Change, Global Health, and Gro Harlem Brundtland's Nordic Internationalism
• 10 Global Public Goods: A Threat to Nordic Humanitarianism?
• Bibliography
• Index