Militarism, aid, and

the Third World

Wealth, Poverty and Survi val: Australia in the World.

Edited by John Langmore and David Peetz. Published by George Allen & Unwin in association with the Australian Labor Party, Sydney, 1983.

XIV, 224. ISBN 0 86861 149 2 (pbk.), $A9.95.

This book grew out of the 1981 national conference of Austra lian Labor Party (ALP), economists, and concentrates on development in the Third World, and the role of deve loped countries, particularly Australia, in that development.

Among the contributors are several with strong South Paci fic connections Harold Brookfield, Ross Garnaut, Helen Hill and John Langmore and some prominent ALP personalities, especially Bill Hayden and Gough Whitlam.

This is insufficient, of course, to recommend a book so be fore the more conservative readers turn the page I will point out its main virtue: it brings together a number of

thoughtful articles on most of the big issues facing every country, including the South Pacific nations. Whilst written from a socialist perspective, the average degree of leftism amongst the contributors seems fairly close to the centre. I would be surprised if many conservatives could not find much to agree with in the book.

The book is very wide in scope, and this review concentrates on only two aspects militarism and foreign aid.

Andrew Mack’s chapter on militarism and development commences by quoting the Brandt Report’s comment that “More arms do not make man kind safer, only poorer”. Some would dispute the first part (i.e. they would hold that imbalance in the armed strengths of coun tries makes war likelier), but few can deny the second: if govern ments spend more on defence, they necessarily spend less else where. In the early 1980 s, the low income countries (those with less than SUS4OO GNP per head per annum) allocated

around 17 per cent of central government expenditures to military purposes.

A large proportion of this perhaps half went on im ported equipment, willingly sold by the developed coun tries, especially the United States, the USSR and France.

They are being joined by deve loping countries, particularly In dia, which have developed their own military industry. I can only hope that the South Pacific nations refuse to be sucked into the costly and dangerous exer cise of war games, and continue to oppose any foreign military presence in the region.

Mack points out a second formidable cost: an emphasis on the military is commonly associated with a loss of human rights and internal oppression.

This is understandable: soldiers are taught to obey their super iors, and to override anything their hearts may be telling them. The message for the South Pacific is clear: if a defence force is deemed neces sary, keep it small and simple, and keep it under tight civilian control.

Harold Brookfield’s very readable chapter on aid is based on his experience in an unamed Caribbean nation. He discusses the longstanding dif ficulty of finding the form of aid which has both “sex appeal” to the donors (who usually want their aid to be spent on some conspicuous urban project), and to the recipients (who want to make their own decisions and therefore prefer a direct budgetary contribution). One should not overemphasise this problem: most developing countries now build-in ex pected aid receipts to their budgets and prepare a shop ping list of projects which are both consistent with their objec tives and would appeal to the donors.

A related issue, discussed by Mack (p 62), is the extent to which aid should take note of the human rights and re distributive policies of the re ceiving government. It is, after all, governments which receive aid money, and only indirectly, if at all, does it reach the people. Brookfield has some interesting remarks about technical assistance (p 95-96), including the secondment of staff to developing countries

(the reviewer is currently en gaged in such a position), and points out that lack of continuity is a major difficulty. Is this an area where government bodies in developed countries could help by agreeing to second staff for five or 10 years rather than one or two?

Brookfield’s main recom mendation is important that regional , locally-staffed institu tions be built up which, with collective local wisdom, can “harmonise national programs with real regional development needs” (plOl).

I am in sympathy with the aims and orientation of this book. It is a good example of the marriage of warm hearts and cool heads, both of which are needed to address major global problems. It is readable, it will expand minds, and it deserves to be added to many libraries, both personal and in

stitutional.

Geoff Harris.