Norwegian development aid was launched spectacularly in 1952 with the Indo-Norwegian Fisheries Project. In the subsequent decade Norwegian aid contributions declined in relative importance. With increasing revenues from oil Norway from the 1970s became a leading donor. This volume traces the development of Norwegian aid policies until the end of the century, analyzing its background and development within the framework of Cold War geopolitical and economic goals of the West as well as the humanitarian concerns of social democracy and the missionary tradition. By the 1970s early optimism gave way to doubt and a recasting of aid strategies, founded on domestic societal changes as well as the aid experience. During the 1990s Norway, following in the path of other donors, increasingly posed the recipients' will to make political and economic adjustments as a condition for aid. At the same time the promotion of peace and human rights became part of a highly publicized Norwegian policy of aid and moral engagement. Helge Ø. Pharo is Professor of International History at the University of Oslo.