Tags: Foreign Aid, Political Economy, Political Violence

The conventional view of foreign aid is that at its best foreign aid helps lift people from poverty and, at its worst, foreign aid is simply wasted. This book challenges the longstanding notion that aid does no harm by providing a wide range of evidence demonstrating that foreign aid can have deadly consequences. Drawing on statistical analysis and country case studies, the author identifies two pathways – a capacity-building and an income effect – for the coercive effect of foreign aid and illustrates how aid led to violent outcomes in recipient countries. U.S. policymakers did not simply turn a blind eye to human rights violations; rather, the author demonstrates that members of the U.S. government intentionally manipulated foreign aid to achieve their policy objectives in the face of overwhelming evidence of abuses. Furthermore, the author provides evidence that coercive effect of foreign aid has endured well beyond the end of the Cold War. The book closes with an assessment of the future of U.S. foreign aid policy and suggestions for reform.

Tags: Gender and Politics, Political Violence, Terrorism, Conflict Processes & War

Why do women go to war? Despite the reality that female combatants exist the world over, we still know relatively little about who these women are, what motivates them to take up arms, how they are utilized by armed groups, and what happens to them when war ends. This book uses three case studies to explore variation in women's participation in nonstate armed groups in a range of contemporary political and social contexts: the civil war in Ukraine, the conflicts involving Kurdish groups in the Middle East, and the civil war in Colombia. In particular, the authors examine three important aspects of women's participation in armed groups: mobilization, participation in combat, and conflict cessation. In doing so, they shed light on women's pathways into and out of nonstate armed groups. They also address the implications of women's participation in these conflicts for policy, including postconflict programming. This is an accessible and timely work that will be a useful introduction to another side of contemporary conflict.

Tags: Terrorism, Political Violence

Key Points -Young people serve as a vital source of support for terrorist groups. Extensive youth participation creates an intergenerational terrorism problem and lays the foundation for future conflicts. -Youth end up in terrorist groups through forced and voluntary recruitment. They perform a range of roles that vary according to age and gender, with girls and young women often being subject to gendered social roles and sexual and domestic violence. -To effectively counter terrorists’ exploitation of youth abroad, governments should adopt a data-based approach to improve the targeting of terrorism prevention programs, move beyond a traditional focus on young men, address the potential for radicalization within the family, and emphasize attitudinal and behavioral change among those most vulnerable to recruitment.