ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights arguments of authors who critique the scope and purpose of international development. The chapter draws upon the work of some of the strongest critics of international development practice, beginning with Dambisa Moyo’s contention that international aid is a “malignant” process that fosters dependency and corruption in recipient nations and stands to provide greater benefit to donor countries than their purported partners. The chapter continues, drawing upon various critical development authors ranging from Easterly’s assertion that top-down planning can never resolve development issues because such planning drowns out local conversation and innovation to Ferguson’s anthropological evidence of the failures of endogenous development programs. The chapter also provides a brief overview of China’s engagement in the Global South.
