International development

International development can be broadly defined as any effort to assist nation states, and their citizens and institutions, to, in various ways, "modernize." Over the past fifty years, international development has taken countless forms, usually focusing on projects to make "underdeveloped" economies more similar to "developed" economies, with specific efforts in such areas as infrastructure development, industrial capacity, governance, poverty reduction, market reform, education, health care, and economic restructuring.

Development is generally distinguished from foreign aid or disaster relief in that development is a transformative project; "give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he'll eat forever".

As a contemporary project, international development began in 1949 with the inaugural speech of Harry S. Truman on January 20th:

We must embark [Truman said] on a bold new program from making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas.

The old imperialism--exploitation for foreign profit--has no place in our plans. What we envision is a program of development based on the concepts of democratic fair dealing.

However, the very notions of "developed" and "underdeveloped" have proven problematic, because they seemingly sidestep notions of rich and poor, colonizer and colonized, to create almost a consumerist dynamic between have and want. Development is, first and foremost, the cure for underdevelopment, and many theorists see most development efforts as ultimately neo-colonial.