Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Scared To Give? A Look Into How Terrorism Affects The Flow Of Foreign Aid, Madelyn Jarjoura

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the role of formal ties to terrorism and its effect on foreign aid

from donor countries considered either democratic or not. I hypothesize that as more seats are occupied in a recipient country’s government by a known terrorist organization, the less total aid democratic donor countries will send to that country (vice versa for non-democratic donors). However, with stronger ties to terrorism, the more aid democratic donors will bypass through NGOs (vice versa for non-democratic donors). To test this, I used Hezbollah’s seats in Lebanon’s Parliament from the years 1995 – 2021 as a case study for …

Arming Development: Measuring The Effects Of Development Aid On Armed Conflict. An Analysis On West Africa, 1990-2020, Alyk Collins

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Did the securitization of the development aid to West Africa lead to an increase in armed conflict and one-sided violence? The goal of this research is to provide evidence that development aid allocation following the September 11th terror attacks had undergone securitization that led to an increase in casualties from armed conflict and one-sided violence in West Africa. I argue the Global War on Terror shifted development aid allocation from development projects to security projects in countries that were geostrategic partners. My approach is based on the Security Complex theory conceptualization of development aid in West African countries. Using both …

Three Essays On The Effectiveness Of Foreign Aid, Yunhee Choi

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout three essays, this dissertation investigates three important aspects of the effectiveness of foreign aid: whether and how foreign aid is effective. Chapter 1 explains the background of the study on foreign aid. This introduction chapter also summarizes my arguments and the empirical strategies of each essay. Chapter 2 analyzes when foreign aid helps the recipient countries’ economic growth. In specific, this chapter argues that the political leaders’ survival strategy determines how to spend the aid, and it makes the difference in the aid effectiveness to achieve economic growth. Using a panel dataset for the 82 aid recipient countries between …

Effects Of Military And Economic Aid On Terrorism: A Long- And Short-Term Analysis, Haley Parker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This paper asks whether U.S. aid reduces terrorism. Foreign assistance may be of two types: socio-economic aid (aims to address the root causes of terrorism by improving health care, education, justice systems, infrastructure, etc. in the recipient country) and military aid (designed to fight terrorism with force and manifests as military operations in a recipient country). Most countries receive both military aid and socio-economic US aid for long spells of time. This is why this research asks: 1) how economic and military types of aid influence terrorism over time, and 2) whether and how economic aid and military types of …

Security After War: A Theory Of Security Assistance And Governance In Post-Conflict States, Elise Marguerite Roberts

Dissertations - ALL

Donors have increasingly promoted the provision of security assistance to states emerging from civil war as a tool to establish peace. Driven by both security and development concerns, donors have asserted the value of this assistance to improve both the governance and effectiveness of the security sector. Despite this increase in aid, however, we know relatively little about its effects. In some cases, security assistance has promoted security force professionalization and a consolidation of peace. In others, security assistance has gone towards fueling corruption and repression, seriously jeopardizing the stability of the recipient state.

This dissertation seeks to address this …

Postcolonial Exploitation Through Economic Development Tools: A Case Study On France And The Ivory Coast, Keshav R. Prabhu-Schlosser

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Abstract: French monetary control over their colonies in Africa did not decrease after decolonization. Instead, the monetary union, the CFA Franc Zone set the stage for French domination of West Africa for decades to come through their control of pricing and exchange rates. This dominion causes repeated economic downturns, which the governments of the CFA countries are unable to counteract due to the monetary and fiscal restrictions placed upon them through the currency union. These downturns are only offset by repeated injections of capital, which can only come from abroad. In a case study of France and the Ivory Coast, …

Foreign Aid And Political Stability In Post-Colonial Africa: A Case Study Analysis, Justine Biettron

LSU Master's Theses

Is foreign aid helpful or harmful in African countries? Even though scholars have tried to answer this question for decades, it is still unclear if foreign aid has efficiently helped the African continent to overcome the challenges that arose with the end of Colonization. A priority for the African countries was to reorganize the institutions in order to reestablish autonomous and stable system of governance. An important amount of help for this reconstruction has come from external actors, that have been referred to in the literature as foreign aid. In this paper, I seek to test the relationship between the …

Aiding To Repair: An Analysis On The Impact Of Foreign Aid In Rwanda After The 1994 Genocide, Mary Atta-Dakwa

International Relations Honors Papers

Between April 1994 to July 1994, about 1 million Hutus and Tutsis were murdered in the Rwandan genocide. The genocide not only severely declined the population of Rwandans, but largely impacted its infrastructure, government, and economy. After the genocide, about $15 billion US dollars was sent to provide humanitarian aid. Post-genocide Rwanda has seen a significant growth in its economy; however, speculators may question if the economic growth is attributed to the foreign aid it received after the 1994 genocide. This paper seeks to examine the impact of foreign aid on post-war reconstruction on Rwanda as a case study.

The Opportunity Cost Of Violence: An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Foreign Aid And Terrorism In Sub-Saharan Africa, Brendan T. Byrne

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Revisiting Us Economic Statecraft: Three Essays On Nuclear Reversal, Anti-American Political Violence, And Social Policies In Target States, Wondeuk Cho

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates whether and how U.S. economic statecraft influence policies and politics of targeted countries. Chapter 1 raises research questions about the role of U.S. economic statecraft in policies of targeted countries. The chapter summarizes my argument and empirical findings. Chapter 2 analyzes whether and to what extent U.S. economic statecraft extracts nuclear reversal commitments from target countries that have ever explored and pursued a nuclear weapons development. Using updated data on nuclear proliferation between 1970 and 2004, this study finds that U.S. economic sanctions with international organizations' involvement and U.S. foreign aid are likely to extract a suboptimal …

The Curse Of Windfall Income: How Foreign Aid And Natural Resource Dependence Constrains Growth, Adams Bailey Nager

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Literature exists on two ‘curses,’ the natural resource curse and the curse of foreign aid, which limit growth in developing nations. At their core, both the natural resources curse and the curse of aid derive from the same root cause- the curse of windfall income. The windfall curse is a macroeconomic side-effect that negates the positive effects of unearned capital by raising domestic prices and lowering competitiveness. While windfall income creates growth in a countries service sector, it represses growth in the manufacturing sector. These trends help explain the inability of both foreign aid and natural resources to fuel sustained …

A Study Of Corruption, Foreign Aid, And Economic Growth, Amanda Deerfield

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Foreign aid donors increasingly demand that aid is used efficiently and effectively. This study examines the effect of corruption levels, measured by the Corruption Perceptions Index, within a recipient country on the levels of economic growth. A growing literature outlines the mechanisms through which corruption impedes economic growth and is summarized within. Additionally, as longevity gains may result from foreign aid but are not captured in economic growth, this study computes a variable called the Life Quality Indicator (LQI) that combines such gains with economic growth and examines corruption’s effect on LQI growth. As any windfall, foreign aid has been …

From Donorship To Ownership? Evolving Donor-Government Relationships In Rwanda, Haley Swedlund

Political Science - Dissertations

Over the course of the last decade there has been an increasing emphasis on recipient-country ownership, or the "effective exercise of a government's authority over development policies and activities, including those that rely...on external resources" (OECD 2007), within the international development community. This new emphasis is not only rhetorical but has resulted in a host of new aid programs promising increased ownership. Broadly speaking, these aid programs are supposed to change the institutional relationships between donors and recipient-country governments and allow aid beneficiaries to have a say over the development policies that impact their daily lives. However, despite their prevalence, …

Water Resources In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case Of Mali, Ria Elise O'Brien

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The world is experiencing the first effects of the water crisis and its importance will become more prevalent in the next few decades. In this study, the case is made that there are steps that can be taken that can improve the standard of living for people by addressing the water needs of both rural and urban areas affected by the water crisis. If the standard of living was increased using the advice given in the thesis, Mali would then serve as an example for what could be done right in other arid areas.

The Money-Moving Syndrome And The Effectiveness Of Foreign Aid, Nara Françoise Kamo Monkam

Economics Dissertations

This dissertation examines in depth one of the potential causes of the low performance of foreign aid; in particular, the role incentive structures within international donor agencies could play in leading to “a push” to disburse money. This pressure to disburse money is termed as the “Money-Moving Syndrome”. In this dissertation, the “Money Moving Syndrome” exists when the quantity of foreign aid committed or disbursed becomes, in itself, an important objective side by side or above the effectiveness of aid. The theoretical analysis relies on the principal-agent theory to explore how donor agencies’ institutional incentive systems may affect the characteristics …