Technical Diplomacy or Rendering Technical? Examining Triangular Cooperation in International Development

Abstract

This article examines Triangular Cooperation, which is garnering popularity in the development sector and is purportedly devoid of the old hierarchies associated with international development. The article locates this emerging mode of cooperation in the context of discussions on decolonisation and turns attention to the need to update the registers used to critique international development. Through a critical discourse analysis of an array of project documents and a reflexive account of the author's experiences in the aid sector, it explores the subtle forms of power that play out when ‘pivotal’, ‘beneficiary’ and ‘facilitating’ partners enter a project. The article argues that such an enquiry helps nuance our examination of old hierarchies in contemporary times. It thereby calls for renewed attention to Triangular Cooperation in critical development studies that is currently preoccupied with South–South Cooperation.