Risk management, neo-liberalism and the securitisation of the Australian aid program

Perhaps the most notable trend of recent years in the development of the Australian overseas aid program has been its ‘securitisation’. The 2006 Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) White Paper was explicit in linking Australia’s own security with poverty reduction in the near region of Southeast Asia and Southwest Pacific (AusAID 2006a: ix). The connection between development assistance and security is far from novel. During the Cold War Australian governments regularly employed aid to support and nurture political allies. However, the nature of the current securitisation drive is qualitatively different. It could be characterised as a ‘risk management’ approach that aims to prevent the spill-over to Australia of transnational risks, potentially festering within the borders of ‘ineffective’ states, by building the capacity of governing institutions in neighbouring countries