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Foreign Aid and Soft Power: Great Power Competition in Africa in the Early Twenty-first Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2021

Robert A. Blair Open the ORCID record for Robert A. Blair [Opens in a new window] ,
Robert Marty  and
Philip Roessler
Robert A. Blair*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
Robert Marty
Affiliation:
The World Bank
Philip Roessler
Affiliation:
Department of Government, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: robert_blair@brown.edu
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Abstract

Is foreign aid an effective instrument of soft power? Does it generate affinity for donor countries and the values they espouse? This article answers these questions in the context of Chinese aid to Africa and the competing aid regime of the United States. The study combines data on thirty-eight African countries from Afrobarometer, AidData, and the Aid Information Management Systems of African finance and planning ministries. The authors use spatial difference-in-differences to isolate the causal effects of Chinese and US aid. The study finds that Chinese aid to Africa does not increase (and may in fact reduce) beneficiaries’ support for China. By contrast, US aid appears to increase support for the United States and to strengthen recipients’ commitment to liberal democratic values, such as the belief in the importance of elections. Chinese aid does not appear to weaken this commitment, and may strengthen it. The study also finds that Chinese aid increases support for the UK, France and other former colonial powers. These findings advance our understanding of the conditions under which competing aid regimes generate soft power and facilitate the transmission of political principles and ideals.

Keywords

foreign aidsoft powergreat power competitionChinaAfrica

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Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , July 2022 , pp. 1355 - 1376
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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