Recognising leadership potential: looking beyond comparative perspectives on aid

Cumming, Gordon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2912-8908 2024. Recognising leadership potential: looking beyond comparative perspectives on aid. Akande, Adebowale, ed. Leadership and Politics, Springer Studies on Populism, Identity Politics and Social Justice (SSPIPSJ), Springer Nature, pp. 509-536. (10.1007/978-3-031-56415-4_21)

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Abstract

While comparative analysis is adept at shedding light on critical issues, it also has significant blind spots. A good example of this “tunnel vision” can be seen in the case of France’s foreign aid program. The comparative literature here presents a confusing picture of French overseas development assistance (ODA), with qualitative studies depicting it as “a deviant case” and variable-led surveys portraying it as “representative” and broadly consistent with wider international development norms. Both sets of analyses neglect the possibility that French ODA might have agenda-setting and leadership qualities. Drawing upon a novel analytical framework and extensive interviews, this research offers a different way of looking at France’s approach to overseas development. It finds that French ODA has not only undergone “mainstreaming” but also developed leadership potential over recent decades. It ascribes these changes to France’s longstanding ambivalence toward international development nostra; the French administration’s strategic approach to communicating its ideas; and—following the financial crisis, Brexit and Covid-19—the emergence of a favorable political and ideational climate that has created space for some degree of French leadership. It closes with a discussion of the wider ramifications of these findings.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Modern Languages
Publisher:	Springer Nature
ISBN:	9783031564147
Date of Acceptance:	28 July 2023
Last Modified:	23 Oct 2025 15:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/162901

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