Bureaucratic Smokescreens offers a timely and trenchant analysis of the place of development aid in foreign policy. Rachel George cuts through the contemporary political assertion in many Western donor nations of the gains to be had from merging development and diplomacy bureaucracies. Her first of its kind comparative study highlights that realizing gains in practice requires a strategic clarity that is sorely lacking in a discourse focused on bureaucratic design.

Naazneen Barma, University of Denver, USA

What is aid's rightful place in foreign policy? That is the key question asked in Bureaucratic Smokescreens. The demolition of the US Agency for International Development has prompted much debate on whether and in what form its resurrection might take under an aid-friendly administration. Practitioners would be well advised to read Rachel's George book, which analyzes how other countries have grappled with aid reform and confronted organizational dilemmas that defy easy answers.

Stephen John Stedman, Stanford University, USA

Scholars have paid far too little attention to the practical impacts of Aid-Diplomacy mergers. Fortunately for scholars and practitioners alike, Rachel George has stepped into the breach with this important book. It will serve as an invaluable guide to why aid-diplomacy mergers so often disappoint, and what reformers should do differently to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Ian Klaus, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, USA