Hunger in the Balance: The New Politics of International Food Aid

Clapp helpfully reviews the debates surrounding food aid and the changes in policy by the major donors-the United States, the European Union, Japan, Canada, and Australia, generally in that order-that have led to a decline in overall aid since the mid-1980s and a trend toward more emergency assistance.

Clapp investigates the forces that have shaped international food aid from its inception during the 1950s through the present. From tied versus untied food aid to issues associated with genetically modified organisms, local and regional purchase (LRP), and monetized food aid, Clapp exposes the particular policies and institutional contexts of donor nations that impact recipient nations and food aid processes.... Highly recommended.

Even experts steeped in the details of food aid policy debates will learn things from this extremely perceptive and carefully researched account; I certainly did. Clapp clearly and meticulously explains the ideological, institutional and interest group dynamics behind evolving food aid debates. She flags interesting emerging issues... [and] clearly lays out the analytical basis for each perspective on why food aid has been so politicized and some of the testable implications of each theory.

In her new book, Hunger in the Balance: The New Politics of International Food Aid, Jennifer Clapp lucidly and concisely deconstructs the evolution and current orientation of the international food aid system. Deftly navigating how donor nations attempt to reconcile individual economic and political interests with (a) evolving norms concerning aid effectiveness and (b) the need for adequate and sustainable aid flow, this volume will undoubtedly serve as a benchmark in food aid scholarship for years to come.

In this lucid, well documented and entirely convincing book, Jennifer Clapp explains how the provision of food aid to hungry people in poor countries has always been (and largely remains) at the mercy of powerful interests in donor countries, above all the United States.

The author presents a succinct and full assessment of modern food aid, discussing its nature and specificity. In this book on the policy of aid giving she defly avoids ideological arguments and opinions, focusing instead on an objective analysis of the influences involved.

The book brings into sharp focus the conflicts among developed and developing nations over issues such as global food security.... It is written in a clear and compelling way and should serve as an excellent introductory text for those seeking to study the intersection between food production and international relations.

Though there is a wealth of research considering the economic effects of food aid on both donor and recipient countries, Hunger in the Balance seeks to explain trends and changes in food aid politics as they relate not only to donor and recipient economies, but policies, corporate interests, and the food itself.... Hunger in the Balance takes on complex political ideas and applies them in a clear and cogent way.

Jennifer Clapp has forensically dissected post-Cold War international food aid policy with remarkable thoroughness and presented it logically, concisely and accessibly in Hunger in the Balance, a fact all the more admirable for the slimness of the book. It offers a substantive contribution to food aid discourse... in addition to serving as a valuable primer for anybody new to the subject.... It is easy to see this book becoming a common reference for students, policy professionals, and researchers.

Hunger in the Balance provides an insightful account of international food aid and the uncertainty surrounding its future in an era of food scarcity, global trade conflicts, and controversies over biotechnology. Jennifer Clapp's analysis of the food aid issue illuminates key features of the global food system, international institutions, and the politics of development.

Jennifer Clapp's up-to-date book about the international food regime pulls together her own interviews of policymakers at the center of the food aid system with the existing literature on the food policies of the European Union, the United States, and Canada. Clapp provides a sophisticated history of the food regime and deals in a remarkably even-handed way with all of the major current issues related to food aid policy. She capably explains controversial issues and demonstrates not only why the contemporary regime has such a strange structure but also why much of that structure is likely to persist. If there were books on every aspect of global governance as good as this one is, all of us would be much wiser.