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2. The Ukraine Support Tracker: Which countries help Ukraine and how?
- Author:
- Christoph Trebesch, Ariana Antezza, Katelyn Bushnell, Andre Frank, and Pascal Frank
- Publication Date:
- 02-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
- Abstract:
- This paper presents the Ukraine Support Tracker, which lists and quantifies military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war. Since the third update we track support by 41 countries, specifically the EU member states, other members of the G7, as well as Australia, South Korea, Turkey, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland, China, Taiwan, India and Iceland. The database is intended to support a facts-based discussion about support by other countries to Ukraine. Private donations and aid through non-governmental organizations are not included due to a lack of systematic data. To value in-kind support like military equipment or weapons, we rely on government statements as well as own calculations using market prices. We find significant differences in the scale of support across countries, both in absolute terms and as percent of donor country GDP.
- Topic:
- Economics, War, Foreign Aid, Military Aid, Geoeconomics, and Russia-Ukraine War
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Ukraine, Germany, and United States of America
3. Critical Crossroads: Tunisia’s Choice between a Comprehensive EU Partnership and Economic Collapse
- Author:
- Ghazi Ben Ahmed
- Publication Date:
- 12-2023
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- ince the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Tunisian authorities reached in October 2022 a staff-level agreement to support Tunisia’s economic policies, Tunisian President Kais Saied has been standing at the Rubicon. Lacking a vision to revive the Tunisian economy, President Saied has opted for a strategy of diversion and scapegoating. By blowing on the embers of xenophobia among his supporters and more recently by stoking the flames in the Middle East, he continues to deflect attention to conceal his economic short-sightedness and claims autonomy from foreign – mainly European – aid, in the name of sovereignty. This posture has now trapped him in his own rhetoric at a time when the Tunisian economy struggles without signs of recovery or resilience in a challenging regional and global landscape. Time is ticking, the situation remains grim, and the country may miss another opportunity to resume economic growth.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Foreign Aid, European Union, Partnerships, and IMF
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, Italy, and Tunisia
4. Exchanging Money for Love? A Regional Analysis of EU Cohesion Policy on Euroscepticism
- Author:
- Michael Bayerlein and Matthias Diermeier
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
- Abstract:
- In the past, the European Union seems to have been able to tame Euroscepticism through regional 'convergence' funding. After the Eastern enlargement of the Union, however, this relationship needs to be put to the test. Not only have the new member states become the main recipients of EU funding, Eastern Europe has also changed from once being the most integration-friendly region to displaying the most integration-hostile attitudes in the EU. Motivated by this empirical puzzle, we revisit the relationship between structural 'convergence' funding and Euroscepticism and ask where - if at all - is the EU's convergence spending still able to tame Euroscepticism. Most surprisingly, correlation analyses reveal that between 2006 and 2018 larger regional subsidies go along with increasing opposition to EU integration. We can rebut this counterintuitive finding by a Diff-in-Diff approach that reveals an increasing Euroscepticism in Eastern European regions between 2006 and 2014. Nevertheless, also these more advanced models fail to establish a positive relationship between regional funding eligibility and pro-integrationist attitudes. Finally, fuzzy RDD models exploit the funding assignment rule and corroborate that the EU is no longer able to pacify integration-critical regions by their simply increasing 'convergence' funding. Nevertheless, the EU has won support in Eastern Europe where EU investments are perceived (positively). In designing a strategy to win back support for EU integration, Brussels does not need more fiscal capacity but rather has to design 'convergence' funding that is visible as well as clearly attributable to its donor.
- Topic:
- Economics, Regional Cooperation, Foreign Aid, European Union, and Eurocentrism
- Political Geography:
- Europe
5. Deficiency and Elusion: Relations between Israel and Ukraine
- Author:
- Michał Wojnarowicz
- Publication Date:
- 06-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- The Polish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2014 broadened the political dimension of Israeli-Ukrainian relations. However, Israel’s cautious attitude towards Russia remains a burden for mutual relations with Ukraine. Since the renewed Russian aggression in February, Ukraine has diplomatically engaged Israel, but the limited nature of the latter’s support has led to criticism from Ukraine. The scale of the current assistance and pledged aid for the reconstruction of Ukraine, as well as Israel’s policy towards further tightening of sanctions against Russia, will be key to future relations.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Politics, Bilateral Relations, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Ukraine, Middle East, and Israel
6. Piercing the Chinese Wall in Zrenjanin – Civic Activism VS. Linglong
- Author:
- Ivan Zivkov
- Publication Date:
- 06-2022
- Content Type:
- Case Study
- Institution:
- Belgrade Centre for Security Policy
- Abstract:
- What are the problems when it comes to the construction of the Linglong factory in Zrenjanin and how did the activists try to improve that process through institutions? Find out in the case study written by Ivan Zivkov. The violation of many regulations, abuse of public powers, disregard for civil rights and extreme lenience of the national, provincial and local authorities to one investor make up the so-far experience with the Chinese Linglong company building an enormous tyre factory near Zrenjanin. The Prosecutor’s Office and the Administrative Court have ignored the criminal charges and applications related to the construction of that factory. The public in Serbia is deprived of the knowledge on how the operations of the tyre manufacturer will impact the environment, food produced in it, the nearby special reservation of “Carska bara” and the health of the people living there. Dissemination of information on these problems is made difficult because the pro-regime media ignore them or sweep them under the carpet. The monitoring of the Linglong company’s investment and its consequences on Zrenjanin and Serbia during the past three years is systematically conducted only by civic activists, with assistance of several associations and independent media.
- Topic:
- Foreign Aid, Regulation, Civic Engagement, and Activim
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Serbia
7. Renewable energy in Africa is about more than climate change: Aid needed for both clean energy and local capacity
- Author:
- Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen and Ole Winckler Andersen
- Publication Date:
- 03-2021
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- Development assistance for new renewable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa is increasingly being used to mobilise additional private capital. Recipient countries do not always share the priorities of donors. Realism and long-term support are key. RECOMMENDATIONS: Continue funding, but also acknowledge different interests and objectives, in order to move new renewable energy to scale. Balance the support for market development with support to government entities. Support longer-term capacity-building to ensure energy sector sustainability in recipient countries. Adopt flexible approaches and ensure independent advice to governments and institutions.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Development, Foreign Aid, and Renewable Energy
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Denmark, and Sub-Saharan Africa
8. Public development aid should refocus on agriculture and education in Africa
- Author:
- Louis Caudron
- Publication Date:
- 03-2021
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Robert Schuman Foundation (RSF)
- Abstract:
- On 18 December 2020, the European Commission welcomed the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Member States allocating €79.5 billion to a new Neighbourhood, Development Cooperation and International Cooperation Instrument (NDCI) for the period 2021- 2027. Since its creation, the European Union has been a major player in public aid granted by rich countries to developing countries. The European Development Fund (EDF) was launched by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and for decades provided aid to the former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). The eleventh EDF, covering the period 2014- 2020 with a budget of €30.5 billion, will be replaced by the NDICI (Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument). The Union and its Member States are the world's largest donor of official development assistance. Their contribution of €74.4 billion in 2018 represents more than half of the OECD countries’ Official Development Assistance ($150 billion in 2018).
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, Education, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Europe
9. Great Britain and Africa: Boris Johnson's Strategic Reversals
- Author:
- François Gaulme
- Publication Date:
- 05-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Institut français des relations internationales (IFRI)
- Abstract:
- In 2020-2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson undertook to fundamentally change the operational mode and strategy of relations between the United Kingdom and the African continent bequeathed by his predecessors since 1997. Great Britain and Africa : Boris Johnson's Strategic Reversals He first put an end to the autonomy and power of the great Department for International Development (DfID), by merging it with the Foreign Office. Deciding to make the granting of aid political, he also reduced its amount on the grounds of the recession hitting the country but against British legislation itself. His strategy for external deployment, adopted in March 2021 and based primarily on an “Indo-Pacific tilt”, has marginalised the relationship with Africa to which Theresa May had wanted to give new impetus in the perspective of the Brexit in 2018. While taking up her concept of “Global Britain”, her successor now seems to want to limit ties with Africa to business relations, highly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as minimal participation in security efforts on the continent. This note analyses such reversals in a historical perspective of the end of a relational cycle. It concludes that Boris Johnson’s very personal policy towards Africa is too reductive not to be amended. In particular on aid and fundamental rights, it neglects the complexity of British positions towards this continent. By reaffirming the strength of the strategic relationship with the United States, it will also have to adapt to the new African policy of the Biden administration.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Development, Foreign Aid, and Boris Johnson
- Political Geography:
- Britain, Africa, and Europe
10. The Institutional Context of Humanitarian Helping in Contemporary Italy
- Author:
- Adriano Profeta, Lisa Ann Richey, and Maha Rafi Atal
- Publication Date:
- 05-2021
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Business and Development Studies (CBDS), Copenhagen Business School
- Abstract:
- Italy was itself a recipient of foreign aid and has now become a donor engaged in multiple forms of humanitarian helping abroad and at home. The institutional context of humanitarian helping in Italy is constituted by a moving constellation of relationships between the state, the church, and the nonprofit sector. As we see the changing institutional context for Italian nonprofits with decreasing public solidarity, negative discursive framing, and the need to diversify fund-raising channels, Italian businesses are being sought out for partnerships between profit and nonprofit actors (De Marchi and Martinez 2020). As in other donor countries, there has been a weakening of public trust in the traditional aid sector of Italian nonprofits combined with recently decreasing national funding for humanitarian helping abroad. These trends have led to an increasing need for nonprofits to pivot their fund-raising campaigns toward individuals and social networks such as Facebook (De Carli, 2019c). Today, the interface for “helping” brings together government legislation, state bodies, for-profit organizations, nonprofit organizations, the church, and individuals. To begin to understand the interface of humanitarian helping and the trends in Italy today, this working paper documents and explains the history of Italian cooperation for development and humanitarian helping. The next section will explore changes in perceptions of non-state helping and doing good. The third section will turn to government-based helping in contemporary Italy to understand the formal structures shaping humanitarianism and international development. The fourth section examines the institutional organization of the contemporary development cooperation system that links actors in helping interventions. Within this, we examine the public funding trends for development helping. Section five then examines the private funding available. Finally we conclude with some reflections on what this institutional context suggests for the mix of public and private helping abroad.
- Topic:
- Development, Humanitarian Aid, Foreign Aid, Public Sector, Private Sector, Non-profits, and Public-Private Partnership
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Italy
11. Migration and foreign aid: Drivers, desires and development
- Author:
- Ida Marie Savio Vammen, Lars Engberg-Pedersen, and Hans Lucht
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- In the often heated European policy debates over migration, conflict, lack of development, population growth, and climate change are often described as the ‘root causes’ that make people seek refuge and a better life in Europe. However, recent research-based literature on the links between migration and development stands in stark contrast to such simplified assumptions. This new DIIS Working Paper explores the relationship between migration, development, and foreign aid. It builds on insights from both quantitative and qualitative studies focusing on Africa – especially West Africa – and is divided into three parts. It first examines the factors that underpin human mobility, then looks at contemporary African migration trajectories, and finally discusses how migration relates to foreign aid. The paper shows that irregular migration to Europe is limited and a result of economic progress, rather than poverty or conflict alone, thus making foreign aid an ineffective instrument to curb it. Furthermore, the paper argues that foreign aid initiatives often focus on externally defined root causes of migration and rarely attempt to understand locally determined drivers of migration. To better grasp how development policies and migration intersect, more in-depth research is needed.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Development, Migration, Foreign Aid, and Inequality
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Denmark
12. China, Italy and COVID-19: Benevolent Support or Strategic Surge?
- Author:
- Francesca Ghiretti
- Publication Date:
- 03-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- The bilateral relationship between Italy and China is back in the spotlight one year after the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on China’s Belt and Road Initiative. To date, Italy is the second hardest hit country by COVID-19 pandemic after China. Despite strict measures in place to limit the crisis, numbers keep rising, placing the national health care system under severe strain.
- Topic:
- Health, Bilateral Relations, Foreign Aid, and Propaganda
- Political Geography:
- China, Europe, Asia, Italy, and European Union
13. Six years after Ukraine’s Euromaidan: reforms and challenges ahead
- Author:
- Marek Dabrowski, Marta Dominguez-Jimenez, and Georg Zachmann
- Publication Date:
- 06-2020
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Bruegel
- Abstract:
- Since the Euromaidan protests (2013-2014), Ukraine has had two presidents and four governments. In a difficult environment of external aggression, they have initiated various reforms aimed at bringing the country closer to the European Union and boosting growth. Progress has been partial and relies on international backing, with limited domestic appetite for reform.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Privatization, Foreign Aid, Governance, Reform, European Union, Finance, and Macroeconomics
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Ukraine
14. "Coronationalism" vs a geopolitical Europe? EU external solidarity at the time of Covid-19
- Author:
- Christian Kvorning Lassen
- Publication Date:
- 06-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Europeum Institute for European Policy
- Abstract:
- Christian Kvorning Lassen from EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy together with Jan Kovář from Institute of International Relations Prague wrote a commentary "Czechia: This Covid-19 environment is not conducive to external solidarity" for the EPIN Report publication, concerned with EU external solidarity at the time of Covid-19. EU member states have been discussing how to collectively deal with the socioeconomic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. As major debates continue to take place about internal solidarity, the question arises how the EU and its member states wish to support third countries, outside the EU, in tackling their health and economic emergencies. On the one and, the EU wishes to become a geopolitical power, which requires that the Union and its member states step up their role and support on the global scene. On the other hand, there are signs of ‘coronationalism’ with some national political parties questioning EU external aid at a time when member states themselves are struggling. Based on expert contributions from a representative cross-section of thirteen member states, this report delves into the question of whether and how external solidarity has been part of the political or public debates in Covid-struck Europe. It finds that, for now, neither ‘coronationalist’ nor geopolitical ambitions dominate the relatively little politicized debates about international cooperation and development aid.
- Topic:
- Regional Cooperation, Foreign Aid, European Union, Geopolitics, Economy, Coronavirus, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Europe
15. Lebanon as a Test Case for the EU’s Logic of Governmentality in Refugee Challenges
- Author:
- Tamirace Fakhoury
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- Prior to 2011, Lebanon was no traditional gatekeeper in managing migrant and refugee flows to the EU. Following mass refugee influx from Syria, the small Middle Eastern state acquired key importance in the EU’s architecture of externalisation, alternatively framed as the set of norms and practices that the EU crafts to govern migration from a distance. Lebanon currently hosts more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees and since 2012 the EU has been the key funding power seeking to help the refugee-hosting state cope with the spillover effects that mass displacement brought about on the country. The EU’s recently published New Pact on Migration and Asylum reiterates support to refugees and refugee-hosting countries – including those in Syria’s neighbourhood – as one of the central elements of cooperation with third countries on migration and displacement. After nearly a decade of cooperation between the EU and Lebanon in this area, and ahead of the EU’s new budgetary and policy-planning cycle (2021–27), now is a key moment to critically assess EU-Lebanon cooperation on displacement from Syria.
- Topic:
- Government, Foreign Aid, European Union, Refugees, Economy, and Syrian War
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, Lebanon, and Syria
16. The War Over Aid – The Yemen Review, January/February 2020
- Author:
- Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies
- Publication Date:
- 02-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Sana'a Center For Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- The Yemen Review Launched in June 2016, The Yemen Review – formerly known as Yemen at the UN – is a monthly publication produced by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies. It aims to identify and assess current diplomatic, economic, political, military, security, humanitarian and human rights developments related to Yemen. In producing The Yemen Review, Sana’a Center staff throughout Yemen and around the world gather information, conduct research, hold private meetings with local, regional, and international stakeholders, and analyze the domestic and international context surrounding developments in and regarding Yemen. This monthly series is designed to provide readers with a contextualized insight into the country’s most important ongoing issues.
- Topic:
- Security, Human Rights, Politics, United Nations, Foreign Aid, Conflict, Houthis, and Military
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, Yemen, and United States of America
17. Ways out of Europe’s Syria Reconstruction Conundrum
- Author:
- International Crisis Group
- Publication Date:
- 11-2019
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Rebuilding war-torn Syria poses a formidable challenge for European governments, which are unwilling to legitimise the Damascus regime by funding reconstruction. Instead, the EU and its member states could consider bankrolling small projects without regime involvement and testing an approach that trades aid for reforms. What’s new? The Syrian war is drawing to a close, but whether the regime in Damascus can also win the peace is uncertain. Few appear willing or able to invest significantly in reconstruction, and Europe, which could make substantial funds available, is withholding support absent a genuine political transition. Why does it matter? Without reconstruction, Syrians’ living conditions could deteriorate and leave the country’s recovery indefinitely postponed, perpetuating current instability. Yet many European leaders believe reconstruction support without substantial reforms could have a similar effect, empowering a regime intent on repression, not reconciliation. What should be done? Europe should consider supporting small-scale rehabilitation projects on condition of no regime interference. It could also test an incremental incentives-based approach – a progressive lifting of sanctions, gradual normalisation of relations and staggered disbursement of reconstruction funds – in exchange for political reforms and regime steps to ease repressive and discriminatory practices.
- Topic:
- Foreign Aid, Reconstruction, European Union, and Syrian War
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, and Syria
18. A Short-Sighted Vision for Global Britain
- Author:
- Owen Barder, Hannah Timmis, and Arthur Baker
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- here has been a resurgence in calls to reconsider the cross-party consensus in the UK on foreign aid and development. The main political parties are all committed to spending 0.7 percent of gross national income on aid, to using the internationally agreed definition of aid, and to maintaining a separate government department to administer the majority of this aid, led by a Cabinet Minister. In their recent report, Global Britain: A Twenty-first Century Vision, Bob Seely MP and James Rogers lay challenge to these long-established pillars of UK development policy. In this note, we consider some of the questions they raise and suggest alternative answers.
- Topic:
- Development, Government, Foreign Aid, and Bureaucracy
- Political Geography:
- Britain and Europe
19. When Does “What Works” Work? And What Does that Mean for UK Aid R&D Spend?
- Author:
- Charles Kenny, Euan Ritchie, and G. Lee Robinson
- Publication Date:
- 10-2019
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- The UK’s Secretary of State for International Development[1] oversees an aid-financed R&D[2] budget that is larger than that of the next 15 biggest donors combined. [3] At the moment, a considerable proportion of that UK R&D spend goes towards solving global technological challenges related to neglected tropical diseases including malaria, and a considerable proportion again towards local evaluation of aid-financed development interventions. Much of the rest is somewhat opaquely distributed to British universities for research supposedly related to development. As well as reform of this last category, the range of more legitimate activities benefiting from ODA “research and development” calls for innovation in approaches to deliver outcomes. This paper will argue there is a (fuzzy) spectrum of development procedures, for some of which global innovation, evaluation, or “best practice” can be informative, for some of which local evaluation or experimentation can be useful, and for some of which perhaps only practical experience and local wisdom can help. That there is a spectrum of intervention types and research opportunities, and that local evidence is often required, has implications for the kind of research that UK aid can usefully support as part of its R&D program and where that research should happen. In turn, that suggests a reform agenda for the way UK ODA for R&D is currently spent.
- Topic:
- Development, International Cooperation, Foreign Aid, and Research
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and Europe
20. All at sea: Europe’s crisis of solidarity on migration
- Author:
- Shoshana Fine
- Publication Date:
- 10-2019
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
- Abstract:
- The European Union’s approach to migration has created a crisis of solidarity. While migrant arrivals in Europe have declined, so has cooperation and responsibility sharing within the EU. Member states’ reluctance to take sustained responsibility for search and rescue operations has exacerbated voters’ sense that the EU has lost control of the situation. The bloc seems to favour informal, ad hoc initiatives on migration governance that have little transparency, as seen in its disembarkation arrangements and the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. The EU threatens to undermine its credibility in driving reform in north Africa when it cherry-picks its commitments to international obligations, and when it legitimises and funds counterproductive migration practices. The bloc requires bold leadership in telling a story about migration as a normal and necessary phenomenon, and in promoting inclusive, sustainable policies among member states and with third countries.
- Topic:
- Migration, Foreign Aid, Border Control, and European Union
- Political Geography:
- Europe
21. Diplomacy Sinking at Hudaydah Port – The Yemen Review, February 2019
- Author:
- Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies
- Publication Date:
- 03-2019
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Sana'a Center For Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- The Yemen Review Launched in June 2016, The Yemen Review – formerly known as Yemen at the UN – is a monthly publication produced by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies. It aims to identify and assess current diplomatic, economic, political, military, security, humanitarian and human rights developments related to Yemen. In producing The Yemen Review, Sana’a Center staff throughout Yemen and around the world gather information, conduct research, hold private meetings with local, regional, and international stakeholders, and analyze the domestic and international context surrounding developments in and regarding Yemen. This monthly series is designed to provide readers with a contextualized insight into the country’s most important ongoing issues.
- Topic:
- Security, Diplomacy, Human Rights, Foreign Aid, Conflict, UN Security Council, Ceasefire, and Military
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Middle East, Yemen, and United States of America
22. The Marshall Plan: Seventy Years Since the Start of a Great Diplomatic Effort
- Author:
- Thomas E. McNamara
- Publication Date:
- 04-2018
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- American Diplomacy
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- We persistently promote each major development assistance plan or nation-building project as “a Marshall Plan for _(fill_in_name)_.” Once a plan is underway supporters and opponents play out their different agendas. Supporters of foreign assistance downplay “Marshall Plan” comparisons because expectations cannot be met. Opponents stress the comparison to highlight shortfalls. This happens because none of the nation-building plans ever measures up to the original, successful, real, Marshall Plan. And they never will. Not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in Ukraine, not in Latin America, not in Africa. They won’t because the original Marshall Plan, contrary to popular myth, had nothing to do with development or nation building. It had everything to do with accelerating the reconstruction of already developed nations in Europe after two massively destructive wars.
- Topic:
- Development, Diplomacy, History, Foreign Aid, and World War II
- Political Geography:
- Europe and United States of America
23. UK Aid Quality Indicators
- Author:
- Caitlin McKee, Ian Mitchell, and Arthur Baker
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- This paper discusses the United Kingdom’s foreign aid quality based on an updated assessment of the Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA) published by the Center for Global Development. QuODA uses 24 quantitative indicators based on how aid is given, grouped into four themes: maximizing efficiency, fostering institutions, reducing the burden on recipient countries, and transparency and learning. These are based on principles which donor and recipient countries agreed to in a series of high-level meetings on aid effectiveness. We find UK aid quality has decreased from 2012 to 2016 and now ranks 15th out of the 27 countries assessed. The quality of its multilateral aid is relatively strong with significant contributions to EU institutions who score in the top half of multilateral agencies, and well-above the UK’s bilateral aid. We analyse the UK’s bilateral aid in detail, identifying areas of relative strength but also four recommendations for the UK Government to improve aid effectiveness
- Topic:
- Development, International Cooperation, Foreign Aid, and Multilateralism
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and Europe
24. Belarus-West Relations: The New Normal
- Author:
- Dzianis Melyantsou
- Publication Date:
- 03-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Transatlantic Relations
- Abstract:
- This paper is part of CTR's Working Paper Series: "Eastern Voices: Europe's East Faces an Unsettled West." The new geopolitical environment formed after the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbas, together with emerging threats and challenges, are pressing both Belarus and the West to revise their policies in the region as well as their relations with each other. In this new context, Belarus is seeking a more balanced foreign policy and, at least towards the Ukrainian crisis, a more neutral stance.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Diplomacy, International Trade and Finance, War, Territorial Disputes, Foreign Aid, Sanctions, and Geopolitics
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Ukraine, Belarus, Crimea, United States of America, and European Union
25. Africa and the Politics of Possibility
- Author:
- Louis S. Segesvary
- Publication Date:
- 12-2017
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- According to the IMF, the 2016 GDP per capita estimate for Eritrea was only $771 per annum; for Ethiopia $739; for Gambia $435; and for Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa's most populous country with major petroleum reserves, it was $2,930, or around $244 a month. According to a comprehensive report prepared by the African Development Bank Group, the number of impoverished people in sub-Saharan Africa had doubled from 1981 to 1998, with the number of people living on less than US $1 per day in the region, "reaching 290 million in 1998, which is over 46% of the total population." According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, in 2014/2015 some 153 million individuals in sub-Saharan Africa, about 26 percent of the population or one out of four individuals above 15 years of age, was "hungry but did not eat or went without eating for a whole day because there was not enough money or other resources for food." [...]a case can be made that all this aid has contributed to fostering a culture of dependency in which foreign aid grants become a form of entitlements that governments rely on to maintain a status quo, as opposed to attracting the type of private sector investments that grow economies.
- Topic:
- Development, Migration, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Europe
26. Networked security between “restraint” and “responsibility”? Germany’s security policy towards Africa
- Author:
- Ulf Engel
- Publication Date:
- 10-2016
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- Ulf Engel assesses the recent evolution of German security policy towards and engagement in Africa which should serve as a useful comparative model for Canada. Notably, in 2014 the German government adopted a comprehensive and networked approach through its Africa Policy Guidelines which is something completely lacking in Canada.
- Topic:
- Security, International Cooperation, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Canada, Germany, and North America
27. Putting politics into international development? It’s about time
- Author:
- Charles Cadwell
- Publication Date:
- 04-2016
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Urban Institute
- Abstract:
- It may be difficult in the current political season to welcome news that international development agencies are paying more attention to the politics of reform when designing their assistance programs to poor countries. But we should be relieved that agencies like the World Bank, the UK’s Department for International Development, and our own US Agency for International Development are doing just that. For too long, aid programs operated with the convenient fiction that assistance work was purely technical. The premise of many programs was “simply transfer missing knowledge, skills, or cash to people in the foreign government or local organizations, and they could adopt policies and programs to promote growth and reduce poverty."
- Topic:
- Poverty, Foreign Aid, International Development, and Economic Growth
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Global Focus, and United States of America
28. A Democratic Rentier State? Taxation, Aid Dependency, and Political Representation in Benin
- Author:
- Giulia Piccolino
- Publication Date:
- 09-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- Drawing on the history of statebuilding in Western Europe, fiscal sociology has proposed the existence of a mutually reinforcing effect between the emergence of representative government and effective taxation. This paper looks at the case of Benin, a low-income West African country that underwent a fairly successful democratization process in the early 1990s. It finds, in contrast to previous studies that have emphasized dependency on aid rents, that Benin appears to have reinforced its extractive capacities since democratization. However, the effect of democratization has been largely indirect, while other factors, such as the influence of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and the size of the country's informal sector, have played a more direct role in encouraging or inhibiting tax extraction. Nevertheless, the hypothesis that effective taxation depends on a quasiconsensual relationship between government and taxpayers finds some confirmation in the Beninese case.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Politics, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe and West Africa
29. Ukraine: Stress at the IMF
- Author:
- Susan Schadler
- Publication Date:
- 10-2014
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Abstract:
- In April 2014, in a departure from its normal aversion to lending to countries in conflict, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a US$17 billion loan to Ukraine to be disbursed over two years. At the time, Ukraine was three weeks away from a presidential election; engaged in combat with an armed separatist movement backed by Russia, its largest trading partner and supplier of energy; and experiencing a significant drain in foreign exchange reserves and bank deposits along with soaring yields on sovereign debt. The country was also reaping the returns of decades of economic mismanagement. Dire from both political and economic perspectives, the situation had the markings of a case where the IMF has the expertise to be usefully engaged, but there were also red flags demarcating circumstances that can hobble the IMF's effectiveness.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Monetary Fund, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Ukraine
30. Bosnia's Future
- Publication Date:
- 07-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH, or Bosnia) poses little risk of deadly conflict, but after billions of dollars in foreign aid and intrusive international administration and despite a supportive European neighbourhood, it is slowly spiralling toward disintegration. Its three communities' conflicting goals and interests are a permanent source of crisis, exacerbated by a constitution that meets no group's needs. The political elite enjoys mastery over all government levels and much of the economy, with no practical way for voters to dislodge it. The European Union (EU) imposes tasks BiH cannot fulfil. A countrywide popular uprising torched government buildings and demanded urgent reforms in February 2014, but possible solutions are not politically feasible; those that might be politically feasible seem unlikely to work. Bosnia's leaders, with international support, must begin an urgent search for a new constitutional foundation.
- Topic:
- Foreign Aid and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Bosnia, and Herzegovina
31. Danish Foreign Policy Yearbook 2014
- Author:
- Nanna Hvidt and Hans Mouritzen (eds.)
- Publication Date:
- 08-2014
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- Danish Foreign Policy and the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2013 were marked by the continuing economic and political diffusion of power on the global stage – a development that generates dynamism and new opportunities in the globalised world, but also challenges the position of Europe. The Permanent Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs describes the political and economic developments in the world – which have led to a far-reaching reorganisation of Danish diplomatic representations abroad – and analyses the most important Danish foreign policy priorities of 2013. The article emphasizes trends in the EU, in international security, and regarding the Arctic and the transatlantic dimensions, as well as developments in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, and finally global development trends.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Defense Policy, Economics, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Middle East, and Asia
32. Rethinking the Financial Design of the World Bank
- Author:
- Devesh Kapur and Arjun Raychaudhuri
- Publication Date:
- 01-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Since their inception, through 2012, the institutions comprising the World Bank group have been involved in lending nearly a trillion dollars. In this paper, we focus on the IBRD, which is the core of the World Bank. The IBRD has the potential to continue to grow and be an important player in official financial flows, supporting critical long-term development projects with large social returns, in sectors ranging from infrastructure, social sectors, or environment.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Environment, Foreign Aid, Infrastructure, and World Bank
- Political Geography:
- Europe
33. External State-Building and Why Norms Matter - The European Union's Fight against Corruption in the Southern Caucasus
- Author:
- Tanja A. Börzel and Vera van Hüllen
- Publication Date:
- 04-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 700
- Abstract:
- This paper asks under which conditions the state-building efforts of external actors in areas of limited statehood are likely to be effective. We argue that the legitimacy of the specific norms promoted by external actors among local actors is crucial for their success in strengthening state capacities. International norms need to resonate with the dominant domestic discourse on political reforms. To substantiate our argument, we focus on the European Union's (EU) anti-corruption programs and their implementation in one of the most corrupt regions in the world, the Southern Caucasus. We show that legitimacy can explain why the EU's fight against corruption helped reduce corruption in Georgia but not in Armenia. In both countries, political elites could selectively use anti-corruption programs as an instrument against political opponents using enhanced state capacities to stabilize the incumbent regime. Only in Georgia, however, the fight against corruption was facilitated by sustained domestic mobilization for anti-corruption policies that added pressure on political elites 'from below.'
- Topic:
- International Cooperation and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Georgia
34. The EEA and Norway Grants: Source of Norwegian influence or soft power?
- Author:
- Rieker Pernille and Tom O. Johnsen
- Publication Date:
- 02-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- For nearly 20 years, Norway has contributed financially to less wealthy EU countries. From €120 million (1994–1998) these contributions have reached nearly €1.8 billion for the period 2009–2014. What exactly does Norway get in return? Should the Grants simply be understood as an act of solidarity? Or do the financial contributions serve as a source of soft power providing increased influence in the EU? The objective of this article is not to assess whether the Grants have helped to reduce economic and social disparities, nor to explain why the Grants emerged. We focus on how and to what extent Norway has had and can have political advantage from these contributions, in relations with the EU and the beneficiary states. This article serves as a case-study examining the relation between a policy (the Grants) and soft power.
- Topic:
- Economics, Political Economy, Regional Cooperation, Power Politics, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe
35. Linking instruments in development and foreign policy: Comprehensive approaches in the EU
- Author:
- Christel Vincentz Rasmussen
- Publication Date:
- 08-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- The EU is currently working at defining a comprehensive approach linking development and other instruments in external action. The Lisbon Treaty has contributed to a reorganisation of the institutions in Brussels, affecting crisis management structures and the organisation of external relations. Comprehensive approaches are not new in the EU system, in particular an integrated approach for conflict prevention and a concept for civil–military coordination were developed in the 2000s. However, a forthcoming communication on a comprehensive approach in external action constitutes an occasion to clarify and operationalise the approach in a new, post-Lisbon, institutional setting as well as consolidating the formal EU commitment to working comprehensively.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Security, Foreign Policy, Development, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Brussels
36. The Post-2015 Agenda and the EU: Faltering in the Global Development Partnership?
- Author:
- Marikki Stocchetti
- Publication Date:
- 12-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The era of the Millennium Development Goals and the Millennium Declaration expires in September 2015. As the largest donor of international development aid and trader with the developing countries, the EU has a key interest in the future outcome. It has also made binding commitments to support developing countries' own efforts to fulfil the present goals, as well as to act as a global partner. In the ongoing consultation process, the UN is pushing ahead with an enabling, universal development paradigm with an enhanced development partnership that goes well beyond traditional development assistance. Whereas the EU and the UN share common ground on human rights, governance and security issues, their preliminary proposals differ significantly on the question of a global partnership. The European Commission has tabled a proposal for the Union that is still based on a very conventional donor-recipient approach, which the UN seeks to reject. The European Commission proposal is problematic because it fails to present a comprehensive analysis of the current Millennium Development Goal on a global partnership, especially regarding trade and debt issues. Instead, it focuses on developing countries' domestic policies. The EU still has time to correct this as the process unfolds. Should it fail to do so, it is highly unlikely that other donors will take up the UN proposal and push it through in the inter-governmental negotiations.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Human Rights, Foreign Aid, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Europe and United Nations
37. German policies and practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina - A promising future and a lack of initiative -
- Author:
- Susanna Thiel
- Publication Date:
- 08-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Centre for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- Since the beginning of the tragic Yugoslav dissolution wars from 1992 to 1995, the international community has taken new interest in the region of former Yugoslavia and its people. The big amount of foreign aid as well as the multitude of international actors and organisations bears witness to that: Lana Pasic finds that until 2005 at least 9.9 billion dollars have been sent to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as international humanitarian aid and reconstruction purposes, which is not taking into account the ongoing support from private donors and NGOs.1 In addition to that, a country profile on BiH drafted by the Michigan State University in March 2012 mentions the impressive amount of 15 billion US-Dollars of international aid being given to BiH for a vast variety of purposes since the end of the war until the beginning of 2012, such as humanitarian aid, de-mining and the improvement of Bosnian infrastructure.2 Germany's contribution to this foreign aid sums up to about 680 million Euros between 1995 and 2012.3 This sum provides an idea of how relevant BiH is to German politics – and gives an impression of how relevant Germany might be within BiH and the first decades of this state. It leads to the assumption that Germany is taking great interest in the new Bosnian state and is politically active for this purpose. For the newly united Germany after 1990 that was indeed the case: it was of high relevancy during and after the dissolution wars. It was the first country to recognise the states of Croatia and Slovenia and took in at least 345,000 refugees from BiH from 1992 until 1996. Also, it initiated the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe4 and portrays itself as one of the leading partners of BiH's way to accessing the EU.5 This approach is based on a long, multi-faceted relationship between Germany and the region of BiH: for example, immigrants from German territories settled on Bosnian ground as early as the 13th century6 , the two World Wars had a deep impact on the region – e.g. for the Titoist partisan founding myth – and guest workers came to Germany after the German-Yugoslav guest worker contract in 1968.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Politics, History, Bilateral Relations, Foreign Aid, Culture, and Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Yugoslavia, Germany, Balkans, and Bosnia and Herzegovina
38. The Holy Trinity of Democracy, Economic Development, and Security. EU Democratization Efforts Beyond its Borders - The Case of Tunisia
- Author:
- Assem Dandashly
- Publication Date:
- 07-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- The EU has been engaged in democracy promotion, human rights, and civil liberties in the Mediterranean countries for over two decades with results ranging from very limited success to total failure. The revolutions in the Arab world – that have caught the EU and Western countries by surprise – provide a window of opportunity for real democratic reforms in the region. The successful democratization in Tunisia will send positive messages to the neighboring countries. Why should the EU be more involved in supporting Tunisia's democratic transition? And what can the EU do to support Tunisia's efforts to build and reform its institutions and to move towards a consolidated democracy with a functioning market economy? Answering these research questions requires understanding the major failures of the EU in the Mediterranean region – the Union of the Mediterranean is on hold and conditionality (at least political conditionality) is problematic and questionable. Prior to the Dignity Revolution, security and stability were moving in the opposite direction to democracy –leading the EU to focus more on the former. Now, consolidating democracy, economic development, stability, and security on the EU's Southern borders are moving in the same direction. This paper argues that, first, supporting democracy is a necessary condition for guaranteeing stable and secure southern borders and, secondly, economic growth is a necessary condition for consolidating democracy and political reforms in Tunisia.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democratization, Development, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Arabia, North Africa, and Tunisia
39. Europe Beyond Aid: Assessing Europe's Commitment to Development
- Author:
- David Roodman, Owen Barder, Julia Clark, Alice Lépissier, and Liza Reynolds
- Publication Date:
- 12-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- European countries pride themselves on being leaders in spurring development within poor countries. We find that Europe's approach to development could be characterised as energetically tackling the symptoms of poor economic opportunities for developing countries by providing effective aid, while doing relatively little to tackle the underlying structural causes of poverty. We use the Center for Global Development Commitment to Development Index (CDI) as a tool to examine Europe's performance overall. We combine the scores for the twenty-one European countries which are included in the 2012 edition of the Commitment to Development Index to calculate the single score they would have obtained if they had been a single country. This represents the combined commitment to development of these countries, by giving appropriate weight to the larger, more populous countries in Europe, which tend to have less development-friendly policies than the Nordic countries and the Netherlands. Our calculations show that compared to the other countries in the CDI, Europe as a whole performs better than most CDI countries on aid and environment, but less well in other dimensions such as trade and security. This paper provides the background to a series of more detailed studies of the policies of European countries, individually and collectively through the European Union, in each dimension of the CDI, which the Center for Global Development in Europe is coordinating.
- Topic:
- Development, Political Economy, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe
40. Africa: open for business The potential, challenges and risks
- Publication Date:
- 02-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Economist Intelligence Unit
- Abstract:
- Africa is drawing increasing attention, not only from the perspective of businesses based in China and Europe, but also from operators in Africa itself. In particular, closer economic ties between Africa and China have been covered extensively by the media recently—with fairly mixed reviews. This paper highlights the potential, challenges and risks for doing business in Africa over the next few years.
- Topic:
- Development, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Foreign Aid, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- Africa, China, and Europe
41. Aid allocation of the emerging Central and Eastern European donors
- Author:
- Balázs Szent-Iványi
- Publication Date:
- 01-2012
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of International Relations and Development
- Institution:
- Central and East European International Studies Association
- Abstract:
- In the past decade, a number of Central and Eastern European countries have emerged as new donors of foreign aid. Although these countries already had certain forms of development-related cooperation with Third World countries during the Cold War, the pre-1989 experiences are difficult to compare with their current, (re-)emerging aid policies. There is a clear pressure, related mostly to membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU), for these new donors to align themselves with the norms and principles of the international development aid regime. Many special characteristics are observable, however, in the Central and Eastern European donors, which predict that they will behave differently than the members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC), the 'club' of advanced donor countries. In part, this may be related to the fact that their foreign aid policies are still in their infancy, but it is also undeniable that their motivations for giving aid are somewhat different than those of the Western donors. It is logical to assume that the consequences of these different motivations are identifiable in the quality and allocation of aid provided by the emerging donors.
- Topic:
- Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia
42. Incentives for Life: Cash-on-Delivery Aid for Tobacco Control in Developing Countries
- Author:
- Amanda Glassman and Thomas J. Bollyky
- Publication Date:
- 04-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- Fewer people are smoking in the United States, Europe, and most of the developing world. Excise taxes, bans on smoking in public places, and graphic health warnings are achieving such dramatic reductions in tobacco use in developed countries that a recent Citigroup Bank investment analysis speculated that smoking could virtually disappear in wealthy countries over the next thirty to fifty years.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, Gender Issues, International Trade and Finance, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
43. Be Outraged: There are alternatives
- Author:
- Richard Jolly, Frances Stewart, Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Stephany Griffith-Jones, Rolph van der Hoeven, Diane Elson, Carlos Fortin, Gerry Helleiner, Raphie Kaplinsky, Richard Morgan, Isabel Ortiz, and Ruth Pearson
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Pushed to extremes, austerity is bad economics, bad arithmetic, and ignores the lessons of history. We, an international group of economists and social scientists, are outraged at the narrow range of austerity policies which are bringing so many people around the world to their knees, especially in Europe. Austerity and cutbacks are reducing growth and worsening poverty. In our professional opinions, there are alternatives – for Britain, Europe and all countries that currently imagine that government cutbacks are the only way out of debt. The low-growth, no-growth trap means that the share of debt in GNP falls ever more slowly, if at all. It may even rise – as it has in some countries.
- Topic:
- Debt, Development, Economics, Foreign Aid, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Britain and Europe
44. Moving the EU from a Laggard to a Leader in Democracy Assistance: The Potential Role of the European Endowment for Democracy
- Author:
- Hrant Kostanyan and Magdalena Nasieniak
- Publication Date:
- 06-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- The EU has consistently stressed the primacy of democracy assistance in its pronouncements on EU external policy, but its actions have noticeably lagged behind. At the heart of the problem are the absence of available appropriate instruments, incoherent external action and convoluted decision-making procedures that require the mobilisation of unanimity and the political backing of all 27 EU member states. The Arab Spring once again highlighted the EU's inability to react swiftly and decisively to the extraordinary events unfolding in its neighbourhood.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Arabia
45. The European Union Training Mission in Somalia: Lessons Learnt for EU Security Sector Reform
- Author:
- Kseniya Oksamytna
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- The European Union's mission to contribute to the training of the Somali Security Forces is the first military training mission launched by the EU. Deployed in April 2010, EUTM is nearing the end of its mandate: the training of the recruits will be completed by mid-July 2011. The mission was carried out in close coordination with the US, the African Union and the Ugandan army, and contributed to the EU's visibility in East Africa. However, given the overall feebleness of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and its inability to implement reform, the political effectiveness of the mission is doubtful. In the current context, EUTM should not be extended beyond its original mandate. The EU and other donors should instead support more functional local administrations and make future assistance to the TFG contingent upon tangible progress towards completing transitional tasks, a normalization of political life, and restoring the provision of public services.
- Topic:
- Security and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Uganda, Africa, United States, Europe, Somalia, and East Africa
46. Regional Development Banks (ABCs of the IFIs Brief)
- Author:
- Jenny Ottenhoff
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- The regional development banks (RDBs) are multilateral financial institutions that provide financial and technical assistance for development in low- and middle-income countries within their regions. Finance is allocated through low-interest loans and grants for a range of development sectors such as health and education, infrastructure, public administration, financial and private-sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management. The term RDB usually refers to four institutions:
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Foreign Aid, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, and Asia
47. Leadership Selection at the International Financial Institutions
- Author:
- Jenny Ottenhoff
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- The International Financial Institutions (IFIs) are multilateral agencies. The term typically refers to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which provides financing and policy advice to member nations experiencing economic difficulties, and the multilateral development banks (MDBs), which provide financing and technical support for development projects and economic reform in low- and middle-income countries. The term MDB is usually understood to mean the World Bank and four smaller regional development banks: African Development Bank (AfDB). Asian Development Bank (ADB). European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, International Monetary Fund, Foreign Aid, and World Bank
- Political Geography:
- Africa, America, Europe, and Asia
48. Investment incentives and the global competition for capital
- Author:
- Kenneth P. Thomas
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
- Abstract:
- Investment incentives (subsidies designed to affect the location of investment) are a pervasive feature of global competition for foreign direct investment (FDI). They are used by the vast majority of countries, at multiple levels of government, in a broad range of industries. They take a variety of forms, including tax holidays, grants and free land. Politicians, at least in the United States, may have good electoral incentives to use them.
- Topic:
- Development, Environment, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Foreign Aid, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
49. The European Development Fund: Perspectives and the Changing Landscape of EU-ACP Relations
- Author:
- Karolina Werner
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Polish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The European Union is the world's biggest humanitarian and development aid donor. In 2010 alone, the EU committed more than €11 billion to external aid. Africa was the largest recipient with 38% of official development aid, 33% of which was specifically dedicated to sub-Saharan Africa.
- Topic:
- Development and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, and Caribbean
50. Polish Development Cooperation: A Turning Point
- Author:
- Patryk Kugiel
- Publication Date:
- 08-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Polish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- The current Polish Development Cooperation system has been under gradual construction since 2004. Fortunately, recent reforms have raised the probability it eventually will evolve as a strong and important tool for Poland's external relations. Moreover, these positive changes are taking place at a very crucial moment in history when unprecedented turmoil in the Arab world has exposed the weaknesses of the European development policy and while Poland is holding the presidency of the EU Council. The convergence of these factors further strengthens the need for a swift finalization of improvements in its development cooperation system if Poland wants to play a more critical role internationally and prove its usefulness in assisting other countries to meet their political and economic aspirations. A development policy that is better-resourced and more balanced (geographically and thematically) would provide Poland with a credible tool of soft power and would strengthen the brand of Polish solidarity.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, and Arabia
51. Averting Tomorrow's Global Food Crisis: The European Union's role in delivering food justice in a resource-constrained world
- Publication Date:
- 05-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Why, in a world that produces more than enough food to feed everybody, do so many – one in seven – go hungry? Oxfam's new global campaign, GROW, seeks answers to this question. GROW aims to transform the way we grow, share, and live together. GROW will expose the failing governments and powerful business interests that are propping up a broken food system and sleepwalking the world into an unprecedented and avoidable reversal in human development.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Economics, Foreign Aid, and Food
- Political Geography:
- Europe
52. Decolonization by Europeanization? The Early EEC and the Transformation of French-African Relations
- Author:
- Martin Rempe
- Publication Date:
- 05-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG)
- Abstract:
- “Françafrique”, “Francophonie”, “l'état franco-africain” and “Mafiafrique” – all these terms are commonly used if one comes to talk about French-African relations after the severing of colonial ties in 1960. Even though they bear slightly different meanings, they share the notion of a very close, stable, and continuous if not to say colonially-styled relationship. According to the relevant literature, the European Economic Community (EEC) acted thereby as a stabilizing instrument. Against this backdrop, the paper tries to present new perspectives on the complex relationship between the EEC, France and its former African colonies associated to the community since 1958. The paper explores to what extent France's belonging to the EEC triggered Europeanization processes that directly affected French-African relations and eventually acted in favor of decolonization of metropolitan France. I will argue that in the course of the 1960s, emulation of community procedures as well as supranational legal coercion to a certain extent transformed French development co-operation and trade relations with the Francophone African states and in the end fostered France's regional reconfiguration towards Europe.
- Topic:
- Development, Post Colonialism, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, and France
53. The Post-Washington Consensus: Development after the Crisis
- Author:
- Francis Fukuyama and Nancy Birdsall
- Publication Date:
- 03-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- A clear shift in the development agenda is underway. Traditionally, an agenda generated in the developed world was implemented in—and, indeed, often imposed on—the developing world. The United States, Europe, and Japan will continue to be significant sources of economic resources and ideas, but the emerging markets will become significant players. Countries such as Brazil, China, India, and South Africa will be both donors and recipients of resources for development and of best practices for how to use them. In fact, development has never been something that the rich bestowed on the poor but rather something the poor achieved for themselves. It appears that the Western powers are finally waking up to this truth in light of a financial crisis that, for them, is by no means over.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Emerging Markets, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, China, Europe, India, South Africa, and Brazil
54. EU Assistance to Central Asia: Back to the Drawing Board?
- Author:
- Jos Boonstra and Jacqueline Hale
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- European Union (EU) assistance in general and to Central Asia in particular is a complicated, many sided and fairly opaque business. In 2007, a few months prior to the Council's approval of an EU Strategy for Central Asia under the German Presidency, the Commission also presented two documents: an overarching Regional Strategy Paper for assistance to Central Asia over the period 2007–13 (RSP) and a more detailed and programme-orientated Central Asia Indicative Programme (IP), from 2007 until 2010.4 Over a seven-year period, 719 million Euros were to be set aside for assistance to the region through the new EU Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI). In addition, the EU has allocated more modest funds through global thematic instruments. Meanwhile, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and more recently the European Investment Bank (EIB) are stepping up activity in Central Asia and several member states have their own assistance programmes (foremost Germany) that are likely to match the DCI amount.
- Topic:
- Development and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Central Asia, and Germany
55. Covering Corruption: The Difficulties of Trying to Make a Difference
- Author:
- Rosemary Armao
- Publication Date:
- 07-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- It is often taken for granted that a free press shining a light on wrongdoing is the way to ntrol corruption. The World Bank, with an eye to the economic potential of honest government, promotes this, as do United Nations agencies and the U.S. and European governments, which spend millions of dollars to develop media with corruption-fighting power. And brave journalists have endured threats and attacks and have even died reporting about corruption. In June and July of 2010 alone, three Philippino and a Greek journalist-working in different media and on different topics, but all exposing corruption-were gunned down. Covering corruption is more dangerous than covering war.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Democratization, Development, Mass Media, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
56. The Pentagon, Information Operations, and Media Development
- Author:
- Peter Cary
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- A core principle of the United States is that a free and independent press is vital to the formation and maintenance of democracies. During the Cold War, the State Department's media outreach into the former Soviet Union and other Communist- leaning nations was largely limited to the broadcasts of the U.S. Information Agency (USIA). With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the effort broadened: USAID began to encourage and develop independent media in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In the early 1990s, when the Balkans erupted in conflict, that region became the focus of assistance for media development.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Cold War, Development, Mass Media, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, Europe, and Berlin
57. Lessons to Be Learned: Political Party Research and Political Party Assistance
- Author:
- Gero Erdmann
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- Generally speaking, the effects of international political party assistance are viewed negatively, or at least controversially. This study attributes some of the shortcomings of political party aid to the poor relationship between assistance providers and political science party research. They simply operate in different worlds. Party assistance lacks clear-cut concepts and strategies in practice, which makes it difficult to adequately evaluate it. At issue is its “standard method,” with its “transformative” intention to change the party organization of the assistance receivers. At the same time, the scholarship on political parties can provide only limited help to assistance providers due to its own conceptual and methodological restrictions, such as the Western European bias underlying its major concepts, the predominance of a functionalist approach, and the scant empirical research on political parties out-side of Europe and the US. Taking a cue from recent political party research, we could begin to question the overarching role of political parties in the transition and consolidation process of new democracies. Other research findings emphasize the coexistence of different types of party organizations, and the possibility of different organizational developments, which might all be consistent with consolidating democracy. All this suggests the necessity of abandoning the controversial aim of the “transformative impact” of political party aid.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Politics, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
58. Much Ado about Nothing? On the European Union's fight against corruption in developing countries under Aticles 9(3) and 97 of the Cotonou Agreement
- Author:
- Morten Broberg
- Publication Date:
- 11-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- The Cotonou Agreement is the European Union's most important legal measure in the field of development assistance covering 79 developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP countries). It empowers the European Union to sanction 'serious cases of corruption' where this corruption is related to economic and sectoral policies and programmes to which the European Union is a significant financial partner. During the negotiations leading to the adoption of the Cotonou Agreement the ACP countries strongly objected to the inclusion of the possibility of sanctioning corruption. In practice the European Union has only sanctioned one single case of corruption under the provision, however. Whereas this does not necessarily mean that the sanctioning clause is without an impact, the fact that sanctions have been imposed in only one situation is a strong indication that its impact is rather limited. It is suggested that more effective means of preventing corruption are considered.
- Topic:
- Corruption, Development, Humanitarian Aid, Treaties and Agreements, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, and Caribbean
59. Afghanistan's Police: The Weak Link in Security Sector Reform
- Author:
- Robert M. Perito
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United States Institute of Peace
- Abstract:
- In seven years, the Afghan National Police forces have grown to 68,000 personnel, with a target end strength of 86,000. The ANP includes the uniformed police force, which is responsible for general police duties, and specialized police forces, which deal with public order, counternarcotics, terrorism, and border control. Despite the impressive growth in numbers, the expenditure of $10 billion in international police assistance, and the involvement of the United States, the European Union, and multiple donors, the ANP is riddled with corruption and generally unable to protect Afghan citizens, control crime, or deal with the growing insurgency. The European Union has replaced Germany as the lead partner for police reform, but the United States has the largest police program, which is directed by the U.S. military. Putting soldiers in charge of police training has led to militarization of the ANP and its use as a counterinsurgency force. Using improperly trained, equipped, and supported ANP patrol men as “little soldiers” has resulted in the police suffering three times as many casualties as the Afghan National Army. Police are assigned in small numbers to isolated posts without backup and are targeted by the insurgents. Beyond funding the Taliban, the explosion in Afghan narcotics production fueled widespread corruption in the Afghan government and police. Drug abuse by police officers became increasingly common as did other forms of criminal behavior. Challenges facing the ANP were further compounded by a proliferation of bilateral police assistance programs that reflected the policing practices of donor countries. These efforts often were not coordinated with the larger U.S. and EU programs, creating confusion for the ANP. The Obama administration has acknowledged the importance of the police and announced its intentions to expand and improve the ANP as a key part of its plan for stabilizing Afghanistan. It should do this as part of a broader international community approach to police assistance that embraces a comprehensive program for security sector reform and rule of law.
- Topic:
- Security, War, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Afghanistan, United States, Europe, and Asia
60. Funding for Media Development by Major Donors Outside the United States: A Report to the Center for International Media Assistance
- Author:
- Mary Myers
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- Abstract:
- The main guiding questions for this research are: How much are European and other governments and donors spending on international media development? Where is the money going, for what sort of development (training, capacity building, infrastructure, legal or physical safety, etc.) and what are the trends in terms of donor priorities and approaches? The present study is an update of one produced for the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) by the author, with Emma Grant, in 2007 (see Grant and Myers in References). That study was, in one way, more limited in that it dealt only with media support when used by donors to enhance access to information and promote governmental accountability in developing countries. In another way it was broader in that it made recommendations about “what works” and “what are the gaps” in media support in order to guide DFID policy. The present study is less of a discussion document and more of a straight survey.
- Topic:
- Development, Mass Media, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- United States, United Kingdom, and Europe