Self-interested aid: Belated modernization and interwoven interests between East and West

The paper starts with an explanation of the term self-interested aid. Next it presents a sequence of constellations of problems between East and West, in order to analyze interwoven interest, focussing on problems arising from international environmental pollution. Finally the consequences which arise from divergences between the interests in solving the problems of Eastern reform states on the one hand and the interests of the reform states in their own problems on the other are analyzed. Within international relations which are ruled by the logic of self-interested aid donors act rationally, if they organize support in such a way that the improvement of the situation in the recipients' country becomes a means for improvement of the situation in the donors' country. The recipients act rationally, if they try to use international aid to solve their purely internal problems, but try to preserve such problems that radiate over their borders, thus evoking international support.