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Aid in the Age of Amazon: Imperial Logics, Pacific Resistance and an Alternate Paradigm

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  • Dame Meg Taylor
  • Solstice Middleby
  • Suli Vunibola

Abstract

Recent disruptions in international aid, including geopolitics, technological innovation, and budget cuts, have prompted debate about paradigm shift. Drawing on critical Pacific scholarship and regional experience, we argue these changes represent consolidation rather than transformation, intensifying imperial logics that have long defined aid relationships. Donor dominance persists, private actors proliferate, and Pacific agency remains constrained with the aid sector. Yet an alternative paradigm already exists. Through resistance, recalibration, and pragmatic diplomacy, Pacific states and societies have long asserted development as relational, sovereign, and self‐determined. We argue real transformation will not come from within the system, but from joining those pushing beyond it.

Suggested Citation

  • Dame Meg Taylor & Solstice Middleby & Suli Vunibola, 2025. "Aid in the Age of Amazon: Imperial Logics, Pacific Resistance and an Alternate Paradigm," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 43(5), September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devpol:v:43:y:2025:i:5:n:e70030
    DOI: 10.1111/dpr.70030
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benjamin Day & Tamas Wells, 2025. "The Elite Paradigm Driving Australian Aid Policy: Learning to Live With the ‘Cautious Consensus’," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), January.
    2. William Easterly, 2002. "The Cartel of Good Intentions: Markets vs. Bureaucracy in Foreign Aid," Working Papers 4, Center for Global Development.
    3. Dame Meg Taylor & Solstice Middleby, 2023. "Aid is not development: The true character of Pacific aid," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 41(S2), December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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