{"product_id":"9781666960075","title":"Bureaucratic Smokescreens Aid-Diplomacy Mergers and the Politics of Foreign Policy Reform","description":"\u003ch3\u003eForeign Policies of the Middle Powers\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ch1\u003eBureaucratic Smokescreens\u003c\/h1\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAid-Diplomacy Mergers and the Politics of Foreign Policy Reform\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ch3\u003eRachel A. George\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003ePolitical Science \/ International Relations \/ Diplomacy\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor much of the postwar era, development agencies operated as largely autonomous institutions, justified as complements to national security and diplomacy. That settlement is now unraveling. Humanitarian aid and development assistance have become increasingly entangled with security politics, amid growing skepticism about aid's purpose and effectiveness. This shift crystallized in July 2025, when the United States, under the second Trump administration, shuttered USAID and folded its remaining functions into the Department of State, echoing earlier efforts to integrate aid and foreign policy in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and New Zealand.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBureaucratic Smokescreens: Aid-Diplomacy Mergers and the Future of Foreign Policy \u003c\/i\u003eexamines this global trend toward integrating aid and diplomacy and asks a central question: do these mergers actually advance states' foreign policy and security goals? Drawing on a comparative study of five countries over two decades, the book uses interviews with senior officials, civil servants, and activists to trace how institutional restructuring reshapes priorities, incentives, and everyday practice on the ground.\u003cbr\u003eAgainst a backdrop of rising Chinese development finance, the emergence of alternative aid donors, and a contracting foreign aid landscape, \u003ci\u003eBureaucratic Smokescreens\u003c\/i\u003e interrogates whether development and diplomacy can be meaningfully integrated, or whether their effectiveness depends on institutional distinction. It offers timely lessons for U.S. reform efforts and the future of foreign affairs practice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eRachel A. George is lecturer in international relations at Stanford University and a nonresident scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is also research associate with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London and a research fellow at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, in the Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Previously, she served as lecturing fellow at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and visiting assistant professor at Duke Kunshan University and as director for education content at the Council on Foreign Relations.\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublication Date: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e12 November 2026\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBloomsbury Academic\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eImprint: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBloomsbury Academic\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eISBN-13: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e9781666960075\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFormat: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHardback\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePage Count: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e200\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWeight (oz): \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e16.0\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Academic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51331263692940,"sku":"9781666960075","price":99.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/fh90cf-fv.myshopify.com\/products\/9781666960075","provider":"Late Knight Books and Services, LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}