Abstract

How and when do international norms shape or fail to shape a state's behaviors? This paper examines how and why South Korea decided to accede to the Organisation for Economic Co ‐operation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in 2008. Specifically, we examine the political infighting that shaped the timing and implementation of the decision. Our study highlights what we term a “bureaucratic norm contestation process” whereby government agencies independently select norms to promote based on their organizational interests and engage in intra ‐governmental debates as they competitively attempt to  “sell ” their choice to decision ‐makers. In the case of South Korea, this aggressive reinterpretation of norms, in conjunction with pushback by rival bureaucratic agencies, has contributed to two translations of the norm. The first translation was a discursive shift of the language of donorship away from a focus on humanitarian duty and towards status enhancement. The second translation occurred at the level of practice, as rival bureaucracies tried to implement their unique vision of Korea's success story. This study illustrates that norm diffusion is not a unidirectional flow of ideas from the center to the periphery of the international system but a process of contested coproduction that includes local actors.