ABSTRACT
There is a growing perception in academia, in the development community, and in the media that arguments favouring security are gaining ground in the aid narrative. Following a review of the literature on securitisation and the motives of aid, this chapter explores the possibility of such a shift in the particular case of the European Union. By means of content analysis, we assess the prevalence of different development paradigms – social development, sustainable development, and security – as well as different aid motives – solidarity, common interests, and self-interest – in strategic aid documents of the EU as a whole (the two EU Development Consensus documents) and from a selection of key European donors (the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, and France) in two different periods. Our aim is to assess whether the weight of the various paradigms and aid motives has changed from the early 2000s (when the Millennium Development Goals were launched) to the current period, in the wake of the recent economic crisis and concurrent migration and refugees crises in the Mediterranean region.
Although we find no major changes in the EU Development Consensus, there is evidence of a shift towards aid securitisation in the strategies of individual donors, particularly in the cases of the UK and the Netherlands. This shift comes hand-in-hand with a stronger emphasis on arguments of self-interest when making the case for aid.
