The Art of Chameleon Politics: From Colonial Servant to International Development Expert

Abstract:The article explores the continuities between imperial and international development efforts by examining the post-1945 career trajectory of a British colonial forester turned United Nations development expert. While previous scholarship has stressed the close links between late colonial and postcolonial development work, this microhistory offers a different perspective: it suggests that the experience of decolonization rather than colonial service proved crucially formative for a career in international development. The article suggests that decolonization should be understood not as a clear-cut break or a neocolonial transformation, but instead as an open-ended process to which malleable individuals adapted their thinking and practices.