Volume 5, Issue 1: Winter 2010
SPOTLIGHT ON DEVELOPMENT
INTERVIEWS
On How to Help the Bottom Billion
An Interview with Paul Collier
Paul Collier is a Professor of Economics at Oxford University, the Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies, and the author of Wars, Guns, and Votes and The Bottom Billion.
Smart Aid and the Unchaining of Africa
An Interview with George Ayittey
Ghanaian economist George Ayittey is the president of the Free Africa Foundation and a Distinguished Economist in Residence at American University in Washington, DC.
Un-Planning Development
An Interview with William Easterly
William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University and Co-Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute. He is the author of several books, including The White Man’s Burden: How the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.
Avoiding the Cardinal Sins of Foreign Aid
An Interview with Nancy Birdsall
Nancy Birdsall is the founding president of the Center for Global Development (CGD). CGD is an independent, nonprofit policy research organization that is dedicated to reducing global poverty and inequality and to making globalization work for the poor.
The Economic Recession and European Unity: A Euro-skeptic’s View
An Interview with Martin Holmes
Martin Holmes is a Lecturer in Politics at St. Hugh’s College at Oxford University specializing in political economy.
ARTICLES
Achieving Quick Impact in Millennium Challenge Corporation Threshold Projects
By Michael Geertson
Drawing on the experiences of five countries – Albania, Indonesia, Paraguay, Ukraine and Zambia – Michael Geertson offers an account of how Millennium Challenge Corporation threshold programs can help reap tangible development rewards, even in short periods of time.
Aid Transparency: The Practioners’ Perspective
By Karin Christiansen
Karin Christiansan, Director of the NGO Publish What You Fund, explains the global aid transparency movement: from who benefits to why transparency is vital for effective aid.
The Puzzle of Iraqi Mortality: Surges, Civilian Deaths and Alternative Meanings
By Christrian Davenport & Molly Inman
Conventional wisdom says that the Bush Administration’s 2007 surge was a success. Though a decrease of violence in Iraq followed its implementation, Christian Davenport and Molly Inman contend that the surge alone may not have been wholly responsible for the on the on-the-ground changes it is assumed to have engendered.
Nuclear Disarmament: Towards Zero?
By Jacob H. Van Rijn
Though the world may be closer than ever to achieving a nuclear weapon-free order, Jacob H. Van Rijn questions the assumption that a global nuclear zero is actually in the best interest of global security.
Promoting Democracy with Neither State Nor Security: U.S. Democracy Promotion Efforts in the Palestinian Territories from the Oslo Accords to the Rise of Hamas
By Geoffrey Swenson
Democracy promotion in the Middle East has been a foreign policy imperative for every U.S. President for the past three decades. Geoffrey Swenson details the aspirations, projects and outcomes of U.S.- funded democracy building efforts in the Palestinian territories from 1993 to 2006.
Economic Governance in the Post-Crisis World: Balancing Regulation and Risk
By Shalendra D. Sharma
In the wake of the recent global economic meltdown, governments around the world are taking unprecedented action as they re-evaluate market regulation. Shalendra Sharma argues that while tougher restrictions are needed, over- regulation could exacerbate the very problems that it seeks to remedy.
China’s Anti-Secession Law and Hu Jintao’s Taiwan Policy
By Chunjuan Nancy Wei
Since his election, one of President Hu Jintao’s primary goals has been to ensure that Taiwan is not lost during his watch. Chunjan Nancy Wei argues that because of its more progressive and conciliatory approach to Taiwan, China’s 2005 Anti-Secession Law interdicting Taiwanese sovereignty has paradoxically led to rapprochement between Taiwan and the mainland.
BOOK REVIEWS
What’s Wrong with the European Union and How to Fix It
By Simon Hix
Reviewed by Andrew Imbrie
Surrounded: Palestinian Soldiers in the Israeli Military
By Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh
Reviewed by Matthew Sohm
The Long Road to Baghdad: A History of U.S. Foreign Policy from the 1970s to the Present
By Lloyd C. Gardner
Reviewed by Christopher R. W. Dietrich
OP-EDS
Faith in Development
By Ken Hackett
The unique role of faith-based organizations in international aid
Rethinking the Development Aid Paradigm
By Carol Gallo
On abandoning the troubled origins of assessing international development
Stop Development Assistance, Globalize Social Protection
By Gorik Ooms
The case for healthcare beyond national boundaries
Encouraging Saving: Lessons for Developed and Developing Countries
By Robert J. Shiller
What Singapore can teach nations about how to save
China: People’s Republic or Bureaucrat Society?
By Wen Rixin
The role of ‘bureaucracy’ in China today
Culture Matters: The Ties that Bind U.S.-Japan Relations
By Matthew Kustenbauder
What the past reveals about the present nature of the U.S.-Japanese rapport
Climate Change: Not Only About Costs, But Also Opportunities
By Emmanuelle Ganne
The potential benefits of the impending global Green Revolution