The Challenges facing Developing Countries in their International Relations

Introduction: New Challenges for the International Relations of Developing Countries

by Louise Fawcett and Ngaire Woods, Centre for International Studies, Oxford University

In the wake of globalization and the end of the cold war, the first decade of the twenty-first century poses serious new challenges for developing countries in their international relations. This briefing summarizes cutting-edge research into the implications for developing countries of transformations in the international political, economic and social environment. The briefings report from a seminar series run in Oxford in early 2000, supported by the Centre for International Studies and the Oxford Policy Institute.

Very often the economic challenges facing developing countries are treated separately from the political and social pressures under which government now work. Yet in this series, political scientists, lawyers and economists are surprisingly consistent in their identification of the problems and challenges facing policy-makers in developing countries. Indeed, the scholarship highlights that the same issues and tensions arise in policies dealing with aid, investment and financial relations as in policies of democratization, regionalism, human rights and intervention. Common to all areas is the vast expansion of conditionality (from Western donors, international and regional institutions) which now encroaches on developing country policies in all of these areas.

Equally, the research emphasizes the extent to which gains from economic or political integration depend very much upon the nature of the international regime and rules which govern international relations as well as state capacity and strength. It will soon become clear that the authors diverge in their assessment as to which kind of international regime best advances developing country interests and in which area (see the tension between the respective analyses of Valpy Fitzgerald and Richard Higgott). The alternatives variously promulgated for developing countries include:

- clear and transparent systems of international rules (e.g. in investment)

- regional arrangements (as a way to bolster and shape domestic reform)

- broader, more inclusive international institutions

- a more diversified approach which places more emphasis on (and implies more acceptance of) local conditions (see the lessons of democratization).

Throughout the research reported below a further common theme is that regarding the difficulties Western aid agencies, governments and international institutions are having in formulating more effective approaches to encouraging development, stability and democracy in developing countries. A new emphasis on partnership, ownership, selectivity, support and dialogue is prevalent in all international and regional organizations, however, it is equally clear that all institutions have a long way to go in fashioning methods and operations which successfully capture and harness these values.