A Samaritan State? External Aid in Canada's Foreign Policy

Canada has been giving foreign aid now for about fifteen years, and this book is the first to show what Canada has done in this new area of international diplomacy. Several projects—Warzak Dam, St. Vincent Dock, Canada-India Reactor, Nigerian Air Survey, Maple Leaf Cement Plant—are recounted in detail, from the practical administrative point of view. The various forms and methods of aid adopted by Canada are described. But the author’s main concern is policy. In the first chapter he asses the more popular theories of aid and finds them more or less superficial. Aid is inescapably political in context and the author pleads for increasing understanding and sophistication in choosing its objectives, methods, and recipients. A national aid policy should be part of over-all foreign policy (the author recommends therefore a cabinet committee on external relations) and should be executed and reviewed by a corps of “aid diplomats” (hence a recommendation for a corps of professional field workers).

This book is written both for professional theorists and practitioners of aid and for all those interested in Canadian foreign policy or indeed in evaluating the aid component in any international policy.