Include Bibliography and Index

Geopolitics and Development examine the historical emergence of development as a form of governmentality, from the end of the empire to the Cold War and the War on Terror. It illustrates the various ways in which the meanings and relations of development as a discourse, an apparatus and an aspiration, have been geopolitically imagined and enframed. The book traces some of the multiple historical associations between development and diplomacy and seeks to underline the centrality of questions of territory, security, statehood and sovereignty to the pursuit of development, along with its enrolment in various (b)ordering practices. In making a case for greater attention to the evolving nexus between geopolitics and development and with particular reference to Africa, the book explores the historical and contemporary geopolitics of foreign aid, the interconnections between development and counterinsurgency, the role of the state and social movements in (re)imagining development, the rise of (re)emerging donors like China, India and Brazil, and the growing significance of South-South flows of investment, trade and development cooperation. Drawing on post-colonial and post-development approaches and on some of the author’s own original empirical research, this is an essential, critical and interdisciplinary analysis of the complex and dynamic political geographies of global development.