The end of Danish humanitarianism

An open access book, Do-Gooders at the End of Aid: Scandinavian Humanitarianism in the Twenty-First Century, has just been published by Cambridge University Press seeking to explain why the Scandinavian Humanitarian Brand retains such apparent resilience in a time when Scandinavia’s characteristic approach to world affairs seems challenged from many sides at once. Evidently, policymakers seek to use the brand to legitimize policy interventions and ideas, or to advance commercial, diplomatic, and security interests.

However, in a chapter on Danish development cooperation Lars Engberg-Pedersen and Adam Fejerskov challenge the level of humanitarianism left when development policies are turned into practice. Aid funds have been used to pursue many different purposes, and apart from documenting this, the chapter argues that development cooperation seems to be in a process of reconceptualization and transformation, away from a focus on poverty reduction and aid effectiveness, rather than experiencing a withering away altogether. This process is linked to interactions between Denmark’s particular history, international changes, and contingent political events.