In the last decade development experts have been closely watching the increase in global activity by countries such as Russia, China, Brazil and the New Member States of the European Union. The interest of these countries in development and foreign aid is often discussed with some suspicion as a curious novelty, and they are classified as ‘emerging’ or ‘new’ donors. These categorisations reflect the existing distribution of power in global governance and the tendency of Western actors to claim unassailable status as global leaders. They also reflect internal frictions within the European Union between ‘Old’ vs. ‘New’, or ‘Western’ vs. ‘Eastern’ members. Continuer la lecture →