Spending on U.S. foreign affairs, which constitutes only about one percent of the federal budget, is being sharply reduced. Under the President's 1996 budget plan, it will decline by just as great a percentage as defense between 1990 and 2002--and by substantially more than defense over the 1980-2002 period. No other major category of federal spending will undergo a real cut over either time period. The shrinking budget, totaling about $19 billion in 1997, will still have to fund the State Department, international broadcasting and educational exchanges, trade subsidies and investment guarantees for U.S. business overseas; United Nations operations including peacekeeping, and all types of foreign assistance. In this book, O'Hanlon and Graham focus primarily on this last component of international spending. Specifically, they analyze U.S. official development assistance (ODA) to poor countries. The authors place U.S. ODA in a broad historical, international, and economic perspective. They then recommend an alternative approach to ODA for the United States as well as other donors. They favor continuing to provide humanitarian and grass-roots aid to most poor countries, but providing ODA to promote macroeconomic growth only to those countries that maintain coherent, market-oriented economic policy frameworks. The authors argue that to provide effective aid, as well as to maintain U.S. leadership in world affairs, net resources for ODA and the international account need to increase only modestly.

This book explores the emerging phenomenon of complex humanitarian emergencies and the evolving policies of the United States in responding to these emergencies. In addition, Andrew Natsios examines the relationship of disaster response to U.S. foreign policy and national interest, and makes suggestions for improving both relief strategies and systems for designing those strategies.

To these issues Natsios brings his first-hand experience in numerous key positions. Mr. Natsios provides case study analysis from these experiences over the past five years to illustrate the arguments presented in the book, particularly regarding Somalia, Angola, Sudan, Panama, and Kuwait and Kurdistan following the Gulf War. As former president George Bush indicates in his foreword to the volume, this book will make a substantive contribution to continuing and enhancing vitally important work. Of great interest to scholars, researchers, and policy makers in the areas of contemporary American foreign policy and humanitarian activities abroad.

This handbook is the product of the experience of Oxfam UK and Ireland in its work in over 70 countries around the world. It offers an expression of Oxfam's fundamental principles: that all the people have the right to an equitable share in the world's resources, and the right to make decisions about their own development. The denial of such rights is at the heart of poverty and suffering. This reference work analyzes policy, procedure and practice in such fields as health, human rights, emergency relief, capacity-building and agricultural production.

The magnitude of refugees movements in the Third World, widely perceived as an unprecedented crisis, has generated widespread concern in the West. This concern reveals itself as an ambiguous mixture of heartfelt compassion for the plight of the unfortunates cast adrift and a diffuse fear that they will come "pouring in." In this comprehensive study, the authors examine the refugee flows originating in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and suggest how a better understanding of this phenomenon can be used by the international community to assist those in greatest need. Reviewing the history of refugee movements in the West, they show how their formation and the fate of endangered populations have also been shaped by the partisan objectives of receiving countries. They survey the kinds of social conflicts characteristic of different regions of the Third World and the ways refugees and refugee policy are made to serve broader political purposes.

Japan's emergence as a world economic power is second only to the end of the Cold War in its significance for the world's political economy. While volumes have been written profiling Japan's behavior in trade and finance, less has been written about a third facet of its economic personality - its foreign aid program. In this important new book, Margee M. Ensign shows that contrary to stated claims, Japanese aid is inextricably linked to Japanese business interests. In Doing Good or Doing Well?, Ensign explores one of the most controversial issues pervading the volatile U.S.-Japan relationship: the practice of aid "tying". In a masterful piece of research, Ensign shows how Japanese foreign aid to the developing world is often tied to purchases from Japan, and contradicts official Japanese statistics stating that American firms have won an increasing share of Japan's loan-financed aid projects. She reveals that the loan component of Japanese aid is effectively tied to purchases from Japan, making this portion of the aid program essentially one of private foreign assistance. Ensign also discloses how economic aid from Japan which is used to build infrastructure can lay the groundwork for lucrative business ventures by Japanese firms. Overall, Tokyo's policy enables Japanese capital to establish a foothold in the developing world, with potentially devastating consequences for countries battling poverty and environmental ruin. Doing Good or Doing Well? has wide-ranging implications for U.S.-Japanese relations, for Third World development, and for U.S. foreign aid policy. Some in the West will conclude that the U.S. should restructure its aid policies to mimic the Japanese model. One dominantargument in Congress is that U.S. aid should be used to support U.S. exports. Ensign convincingly shows that it is in the best interest of the U.S. and the Third World that foreign assistance be used to support broad-based economic growth and development. Finally, her findings - that Japan's aid focus is a narrow one - suggest that Japan does not yet have the kind of global vision that helped to reshape the world after World War II. For the U.S., these results are a reminder that economic nationalism must be countered by a global blueprint if the international economic system is to remain open and cooperative.

It was long assumed that the Soviet Union dictated Warsaw Pact policy in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America (known as the 'Third World' during the Cold War). Although the post-1991 opening of archives has demonstrated this to be untrue, there has still been no holistic volume examining the topic in detail. This important book fills that void and examines the agency of these states - Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania - and their international interactions during the 'discovery' of the 'Third World' from the 1950s to the 1970s. Building upon recent scholarship and working from a diverse range of new archival sources, contributors study the diplomacy of the eastern and central European communist states to reveal their myriad motivations and goals (importantly often in direct conflict with Soviet directives). This work, the first revisionist review of the role of the junior members as a whole, will be of interest to all scholars of the Cold War, whatever their geographical focus.

Calderisi shows that Africa has steadily lost markets by its own mismanagement; that corrupt, dictatorial regimes have hobbled agriculture, enterprise and foreign investment; that African family values and fatalism are more destructive than tribalism; and that African leaders prey intentionally on Western guilt. Calderisi exposes the shortcomings and indulgences of foreign aid and debt relief, and proposes his own radical solutions. Drawing on many years of first hand experience, "The Trouble with Africa" highlights issues which have been ignored by Africa's leaders but have long worried ordinary Africans, diplomats, academics, business leaders, aid workers, volunteers and missionaries. It ripples with stories which only someone who has talked directly to African farmers - and heads of state - could recount.

A Wall Street Journal best book of the year "What made this episode in our collective history possible was not so much the lies we told one another, but the lies we told ourselves." A recent Brown University graduate, Michael Soussan was elated when he landed a position as a program coordinator for the United Nations' Iraq Program. Little did he know that he would end up a whistleblower in what PBS NewsHour described as the "largest financial scandal in UN history." Breaking a conspiracy of silence that had prevailed for years, Soussan sparked an unprecedented corruption probe into the Oil-for-Food program that exposed a worldwide system of bribes, kickbacks, and blackmail involving ruthless power-players from around the globe. At the crossroads of pressing humanitarian concerns, crisis diplomacy, and multibillion-dollar business interests, Soussan's story highlights core flaws of our international system and exposes the frightening, corrupting power of the black elixir that fuels our world's economy.

Social workers are increasingly engaged in supporting individuals and communities in long-term disaster recovery. Rebuilding Lives Post-Disaster brings together an international team of social work researchers who have investigated the experiences, perspectives, challenges, and complexities in disaster recovery. It features country case studies drawing from field research undertaken in disaster-affected communities in Canada, the United States, Australia, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, and China. In so doing, the volume provides a comprehensive perspective on the realities of disaster recovery and explores key concepts such as resilience, community-based disaster risk reduction, and social and gendered construction of vulnerability and capabilities. Undergraduate and graduate students and professionals in the fields of social work, community development, international social work, emergency management, and related fields will find the text to be a helpful resource.

While humanitarianism is unquestionably a fast-growing subject of practitioner and scholarly engagement, much discussion about it is predicated on a dangerous dichotomy between 'aid givers' and 'relief takers' that largely misrepresents the negotiated nature of the humanitarian enterprise. To highlight the tension between these relationships, this book focuses on the 'humanitarian spaces' and the dynamics of 'humanitarian diplomacy' (both 'local' and 'global') that sustain them. It gathers key voices to provide a critical analysis of international theory, geopolitics and dilemmas underpinning the negotiation of relief. Offering up-to-date examples from cases such as Kosovo and the Tsunami, or ongoing crises like Haiti, Libya, Darfur and Somalia, the contributors analyse the complexity of humanitarian diplomacy and the multiplicity of geographies and actors involved in it. By investigating the transformations that both diplomacy and humanitarianism are undergoing, the authors prompt us towards a critical and eclectic understanding of the dialectics of humanitarian space. Negotiating Relief aims to present humanitarianism not only as a relief delivery mechanism but also as a phenomenon in dialogue with both localised crises and global politics.

The media reporting of the Ethiopian Famine in 1984-5 was an iconic news event. It is widely believed to have had an unprecedented impact, challenging perceptions of Africa and mobilising public opinion and philanthropic action in a dramatic new way. The contemporary international configuration of aid, media pressure, and official policy is still directly affected and sometimes distorted by what was - - as this narrative shows - - also an inaccurate and misleading story. In popular memory, the reporting of Ethiopia and the resulting humanitarian intervention were a great success. Yet alternative interpretations give a radically different picture of misleading journalism and an aid effort which did more harm than good. Using privileged access to BBC and Government archives, Reporting Disasters ex- amines and reveals the internal factors which drove BBC news and offers a rare case study of how the media can affect public opinion and policymaking. It constructs the process that accounts for the immensity of the news event, following the response at the heart of government to the pressure of public opinion. And it shows that while the reporting and the altruistic festival that it produced triggered remarkable and identifiable changes, the on- going impact was not what the conventional account claims it to have been.

A sparkling satire on international aid and celebrity, Looking for Bono charts one man's accidental quest to bring water to his community. Baba is a semi-literate man living a simple life centred on the local auto repair shop in Palemo, how he will find his next meal and an obsession with his disinterested, Nollywood star-wannabe wife Munira and her voluptuous body. Baba is acutely aware of the water corruption that has left him, on occasion, without so much as a drop to even brush his teeth. One day on the news, a story about international humanitarian Bono flashes onscreen. Bono is in Africa to do good and like a thunderbolt, Baba decides that Bono is the answer to all of his problems. Once Bono hears about the local water issues he will want to step in and convince the president of Nigeria to end the corruption. Once the water is flowing, Baba can clean up and Munira will set her sights a little closer to home. Before he knows it, Baba is a celebrity being feted by the Lagos media and Munira has turned into his virtuous wife. Will the ensuing media storm engulf Baba as he is launched into a world of high stakes foreign aid dealings and competing interests? Or will he return to his simple life with water for his community and the renewed affections of his Munira?

First discovered in 1976, and long regarded as an easily manageable virus affecting isolated rural communities, Ebola rocketed to world prominence in 2014 as a deadly epidemic swept through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in West Africa. Thousands of people died as the extraordinarily contagious disease spread rapidly from villages to urban centres. Initial quarantine responses proved often too little and too late, and the medical infrastructure of the affected countries struggled to cope. By August 2014, several months after the start of the outbreak, the WHO declared the epidemic a public health emergency and international aid teams and volunteers began to pour in. But halting the epidemic proved to be hugely challenging, not only in terms of the practicalities of dealing with the sheer numbers of patients carrying the highly infectious virus, but in dealing with social and cultural barriers. The author, Dorothy Crawford, visited Sierra Leone while the epidemic was ongoing and met with those on the frontline in the fight against the virus. In Ebola Crawford combines personal accounts from these brave medical workers with the latest scientific reports to tell the story of the epidemic as it unfolded, and how it has changed our understanding of the virus. She looks at its origin and spread, the international response, and its devastating legacy to the health of those living in the three worst affected countries. She describes the efforts to prevent international spread, the treatment options for Ebola, including the drug and vaccine trials that eventually got underway in 2015, and the sensitive issue of running trials of experimental therapies during a lethal epidemic. Our understanding of the Ebola virus continues to develop as long-term health problems and complications following recovery from the disease are being identified. Epidemics of Ebola or other dangerous microbes will continue to threaten the world regularly. Already concerns have been raised by the possible impact of the Zika virus. What lessons have been learnt from Ebola? How, asks Crawford, might we prevent a repeat of the awful suffering seen in 2014-16?

Although the term 'natural disaster' applies to the December 2004 tsunami, the images of huge devastation that were televised after the tragedy probably seemed a good deal less 'natural' to us than those of starving African children we saw seven months later, from Niger. The tsunami was perceived as so 'un-natural' that it provoked an immediate, unprecedented international outpouring of sympathy. It took many months, by contrast, for the story of a new famine in the Sahel to make headlines. From the outset its causes were apparent in media coverage-droughts and locust invasions have always seemed the everyday lot of people living in this region. The link between the crisis and its natural causes was so self-evident that the first news reports tended to omit the point that, in reality, drought and the locust invasion had overtaken the Sahel region a year earlier. Nevertheless it became Medecins Sans Frontieres' aim to see it acknowledged-not in the press, but among those institutions responsible for food security in Niger-that the deaths of tens of thousands of children as a result of malnutrition would not be considered 'natural' phenomenon, still less a normal one. For this reason the 2005 crisis was a unique experience for the humanitarian organization. MSF treated more than 60,000 children suffering from severe malnutrition-one of the most ambitious operations in its history. It also found itself embroiled in controversy among the various national and international actors involved in managing the crisis in Niger over the summer of 2005. At the very moment MSF was straining to mobilise other actors to intervene in what it judged to be an emergency situation, the NGO was undergoing heated argument and intense inquiry as to the exact nature of the situation it was attempting to manage. Public, operational involvement of this kind - outside the conflict zones where MSF traditionally and typically intervenes, moreover - called for some form of reflection. This book makes no claim whatsoever to be comprehensive, or to provide a final, definitive version of 'the truth' with respect to the 2005 famine in Niger. Instead the contributors endeavor to shed new light on a multifaceted crisis.

World poverty is both an intractable and ever-mutable problem. It has afflicted humanity since the earliest times, but its basic features - aside from the constant, want - have evolved as history has moved from epoch to epoch. Today, there is broad recognition that a significant segment of the global population (the 'bottom billion,' to use Paul Collier's term) is impoverished despite the globalization of the world economy. Two questions - why destitution is so persistent despite massive global economic growth and what can be done about it - have animated debates among development scholars and poverty researchers for decades. Those who concentrate on the first question focus on the failure of anti-poverty efforts and typically stress why particular solutions on offer have not worked. Those addressing the second question have focused on either improving material conditions or on creating institutional frameworks (economic, social and political) that will allow the masses in poor countries to escape from poverty. Yet until now, virtually no one has addressed in a substantial way the most basic precondition for alleviating poverty: human safety. In most poverty-stricken areas of the world, violence is endemic. Whether it is generated by criminals who operate with complete abandon or by the state itself via predatory police forces, violence and threat of it have locked hundreds of millions of people into poverty. Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros's The Locust Effect focuses on the central role of violence in perpetuating poverty, and shows that if any headway is to be made, this issue has to become a top priority for policymakers. Simply put, if people aren't safe, nothing else matters. Shipping grain to the poor, helping them vote, or assisting their efforts to start a farm is irrelevant. Whatever material improvements we provide will simply wash away in the face of the corrupt police forces, out-of-control, armies, private militias, organized criminals, and - not least - failed justice systems that plague poor countries. Throughout, the book will feature real-world stories ranging from Thailand to Bolivia to India to Nigeria that vividly depict how violence undercuts antipoverty efforts. While they argue that this violence is the fundamental issue facing the antipoverty movement, they do not merely identify the problem. They also draw from their experience running the International Justice Mission to show that ground-up efforts to reform legal and public justice systems can generate real, positive results. Sweeping in geographical scope and filled with unforgettable stories of individuals trapped within the mutually reinforcing cycle of poverty and violence, The Locust Effect will force us to rethink everything we know about the causes of poverty and why it is so difficult to root out.

Challenges many of the dominant beliefs in the discourse on development and aid. Is the world witnessing a global associational revolution spearheaded by development non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Is the relationship between states and societies being more fundamentally redefined, even in remote, ruralcorners of the world? What role does the mushrooming of development NGOs play in this political-ideological process? What about NGO staff? Are they angels of mercy, government-paid development diplomats, propagandists for a triumphant West, or instruments in a coming clash between civilizations? Presented here are cases from Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Bangladesh and Nicaragua that shed light on these complex questions. The text puts forward a critique of central theories and concepts which have dominated research and discourse on development NGOs. It also proposes and demonstrates some different analytical approaches. North America: Africa World Press

The book traces the history of international humanitarianism from the anti-slavery movement to the end of the cold war. It is based on an extensive survey of the international literature and is retold in an original narrative that relies on a close examination of the sources. The reconstruction of humanitarianism's long history unfolds around some crucial moments and events: the colonial expansion of European countries, the two world wars and their aftermaths, the emergence of a new postcolonial order. In terms of its contents, narrative style, interpretative approach the book is aimed at a large and diverse public including: scholars who are studying and teaching humanitarianism; students who need to learn about humanitarianism as part of their training or research; operators and volunteers who are engaged in the field; non-specialist readers who are interested in the topic because of its relevance to current events. -- .

Humanitarian groups have failed, Fiona Terry believes, to face up to the core paradox of their activity: humanitarian action aims to alleviate suffering, but by inadvertently sustaining conflict it potentially prolongs suffering. In Condemned to Repeat?, Terry examines the side-effects of intervention by aid organizations and points out the need to acknowledge the political consequences of the choice to give aid. The author makes the controversial claim that aid agencies act as though the initial decision to supply aid satisfies any need for ethical discussion and are often blind to the moral quandaries of aid. Terry focuses on four historically relevant cases: Rwandan camps in Zaire, Afghan camps in Pakistan, Salvadoran and Nicaraguan camps in Honduras, and Cambodian camps in Thailand.

Terry was the head of the French section of Medecins sans frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) when it withdrew from the Rwandan refugee camps in Zaire because aid intended for refugees actually strengthened those responsible for perpetrating genocide. This book contains documents from the former Rwandan army and government that were found in the refugee camps after they were attacked in late 1996. This material illustrates how combatants manipulate humanitarian action to their benefit. Condemned to Repeat? makes clear that the paradox of aid demands immediate attention by organizations and governments around the world. The author stresses that, if international agencies are to meet the needs of populations in crisis, their organizational behavior must adjust to the wider political and socioeconomic contexts in which aid occurs.

Formed 50 years ago, in 1961, the Peace Corps sends American volunteers to serve at the grassroots level in villages and towns across the globe to meet its three-point legislative mandate of promoting world peace and friendship by improving the lives of those they serve, helping others understand American culture, and sharing their experiences with Americans back home. To date, nearly 200,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in 139 countries. This book examines the Peace Corps, with a focus on the problems of safety and security for its volunteers world-wide and the challenges facing the organisation to remain relevant and productive for the next fifty years.

Food aid has become a contentious issue in recent decades, with sharp disagreements over genetically modified crops, agricultural subsidies, and ways of guaranteeing food security in the face of successive global food crises. In Hunger in the Balance, Jennifer Clapp provides a timely and comprehensive account of the contemporary politics of food aid, explaining the origins and outcomes of recent clashes between donor nations-and between donors and recipients.She identifies fundamental disputes between donors over "tied" food aid, which requires that food be sourced in the donor country, versus "untied" aid, which provides cash to purchase food closer to the source of hunger. These debates have been especially intense between the major food aid donors, particularly the European Union and the United States. Similarly, the EU's rejection of GMO agricultural imports has raised concerns among recipients about accepting GMO foodstuffs from the United States. For the several hundred million people who at present have little choice but to rely on food aid for their daily survival, Clapp concludes, the consequences of these political differences are profound.

An account of the Flint water crisis shows that Flint's struggle for safe and affordable water is part of a broader struggle for democracy. When Flint, Michigan, changed its source of municipal water from Lake Huron to the Flint River, Flint residents were repeatedly assured that the water was of the highest quality. At the switchover ceremony, the mayor and other officials performed a celebratory toast, declaring "Here's to Flint!" and downing glasses of freshly treated water. But as we now know, the water coming out of residents' taps harbored a variety of contaminants, including high levels of lead. In Flint Fights Back, Benjamin Pauli examines the water crisis and the political activism that it inspired, arguing that Flint's struggle for safe and affordable water was part of a broader struggle for democracy. Pauli connects Flint's water activism with the ongoing movement protesting the state of Michigan's policy of replacing elected officials in financially troubled cities like Flint and Detroit with appointed "emergency managers." Pauli distinguishes the political narrative of the water crisis from the historical and technical narratives, showing that Flint activists' emphasis on democracy helped them to overcome some of the limitations of standard environmental justice frameworks. He discusses the pro-democracy (anti-emergency manager) movement and traces the rise of the "water warriors"; describes the uncompromising activist culture that developed out of the experience of being dismissed and disparaged by officials; and examines the interplay of activism and scientific expertise. Finally, he explores efforts by activists to expand the struggle for water justice and to organize newly mobilized residents into a movement for a radically democratic Flint.

U.S. foreign aid programs began in earnest with the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe following World War II. Arguably, the underlying rationale for aid during most of the post-war period was to counter Communist influence in the world. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and particularly since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, aid programs have increasingly been justified within the context of anti-terrorism. Despite changing global conditions and challenges, U.S. foreign aid programs, their organisational structure, and their statutory underpinnings, reflect the Cold War environment in which they originated. This book focuses on the role that foreign assistance can play as a foreign policy tool within the current international environment.

This book is structured in four sections. Section 1 looks at the issues related to theoretical and methodological considerations. Chapter 1 to 5 deal with gaps in measuring effectiveness of development aid programs including issues related to evaluability assessment, outcome mapping and sustainability (Chapter 1), perspective in measuring effectiveness (chapter 2), the application of narrative and dialogue methods in defining and redefining effectiveness (chapter 3), the role of economic modelling in measuring the impact and effectiveness of aid programs (chapter 4) and the outline of how the effectiveness of HIV prevention is currently being measured at a global level, and the requirements at local and national levels (chapter 5). Section two looks at principles and practice with some case studies. Chapter 6, selling humanitarian emergencies to the media, focuses on the relationship between journalists and aid workers and suggests practical strategies relief agencies can take to raise the media profile.