Introduction

This chapter serves as an introduction to The Nationalisation of UK Aid and Development—The End of Aid? It briefly introduces the nationalisation of development framework that emerges through the empirical analysis presented in the book. The framework rests on five pillars—lack of coherence, neoliberalism and private investment, protecting borders, politicisation, and downgraded development. The ‘nationalisation’ of UK development and aid, the book argues, has led to loss of UK soft power and also had detrimental effects on global development. The introductory chapter further explains why the UK was chosen as a case-study country and how the book contributes to the academic disciplines of Politics, International Relations, Political Economy, and Development Studies.