David Rieff has written an important review (in The New Republic) of what looks to be an important book, Peter Gill's Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid. I haven't yet read the book but it is clearly an important contribution to the debate about what kind of interventions by developed world agencies in developing world societies can be effective. Rieff references this literature in his review – this blog has reviewed some recent books such as Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid and Linda Polman's War Games.

The review makes it clear that Gill's book is pessimistic about Ethiopia's prospects, despite the arrival of Chinese investment. It concludes:

“Gill tries hard to be optimistic. He even writes hopefully of the
role that China, now the most transformative player on the African
scene, might play in Ethiopia’s better future. To have gotten Chinese
officials in Africa to speak with candor and in depth is a considerable
journalistic accomplishment, but quoting a Chinese official in Addis
Ababa about China directing “some of their surplus savings to
infrastructural development in Africa” is the thinnest of thin reeds on
which to place one’s hopes. My sense is that Gill knows it.”

Rieff himself has a book on the global food crisis due out next year.