David Engerman argues that during the Cold War, foreign aid to the Third World was a tool of super power competition. Focusing on super power politics and the interaction of states and governments, the Price of Aid The Price of Aid contributes to the history of international relations. The aim of the book is to look at the origins and evolution of the foreign aid during the Cold War, and to show the political character of the aid and Third World agency in the process. Engerman approaches foreign aid through the interaction between the United States, the Soviet Union, and India. The book “investigates … the boundaries of state power, examining disputes within governments as well as transnational networks crossing between them” (11). The author brings the economy to the core of international relations during the Cold War. Building his analysis on extremely wide archival material, interviews, and literature, the book analyzes foreign aid in India from the late 1940s until the mid-1970s. The framework is based on the approach of history of international relations and the Cold War as an ideological conflict. From the point of view the economic aspects, India as a part of the Global Cold War is a fruitful topic to study. As the book comprehensively investigates, there was a competition between the capitalist and socialist systems, and India was an interesting arena for the competition. Two super powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, had their own geopolitical and economic agendas—but so did India. The book brings to the fore the ability of India—being non-aligned and a newly independent state—to play the Cold War and to be one of the “clever calves that could suckle two cows” (157–58). Officials in India used superpower aid to advance their own economic visions. The Price of Aid is a comprehensive study about the role of foreign aid in the economic development of the recipient, as well as the political and economic benefits of the aid to the donors.

The Price of Aid approaches economic development in India by bringing to the fore case studies representing the role in foreign aid in super power competition. From the point of view of the history of international relations in Cold War studies, the book gives a profound picture of the contests behind policy decisions. In terms of the readership in Russian studies and the Cold War studies focusing on East/Soviet agency, it would have been interesting to know how the new studies challenging the role of bipolarity during the Cold War (Oscar Sanchez-Sibony, Red Globalization, 2014) would have changed the picture. The book introduces interesting information about Soviet agency in India, such as the application of Kosygin's reform. The role of individuals and institutions, such as the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) as a meeting point of eastern and western experts in the 1950s, resonates with the new studies of East-West interaction and the transnational flow of ideas. ISI seems to be a predecessor for the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), established in Vienna in 1972 (Egle Rindzeviciute, The Power of Systems, 2016). These factors are in the book but not mentioned in the Introduction. Mentioning concepts and factors such as the role of individuals and institutions, the transnational flow of ideas, the transfer of technology and expertise, and modernity would have increased considerably the readership of the book.

In order to decrease the page numbers of the lengthy book, the publisher has made some annoying choices that have reduced valuable information for the reader. The “Contents” mention only the titles of the main chapters but not the titles of subchapters. The “Notes on Sources” only mention archives used in the book; the literature must be dug out from the “Notes.” This is a pity because a huge part of the work done by the author remains hidden.

The Price of Aid gives a comprehensive picture of the economic and political history of India and, in the process, the role of foreign aid from the point of view of international relations. Due to its rich content, this book is also highly recommended for readers outside of the field of international relations history.