Readings

Week 1 · Mon Aug 24 · Wed Aug 26

What is international development

Required readings

• "The cartel of good intentions."
• "Foreign aid withdrawals and suspensions: Why, when and are they effective?"

Case study

• "Trump, USAID and the humanitarian toll of the aid freeze"
• "Jimmy Carter, Guinea worm..."

Week 2 · Mon Aug 31

Development philosophies

Required readings

• "Development as freedom (1999)."
• The Anti-politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho
• "The philosophy of foreign aid: A question of the right to a human minimum."

Case study

• "Trump aid cuts leave charities in silence"
• "The Heyday of NGOs Ended Long Before the End of USAID"

Week 3 · Wed Sep 9

Geopolitics

Required readings

• "Bush and foreign aid."
• "Pleasing the principal: US influence in World Bank policymaking."
• "The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation."

Case study

• "Why militaries benefit from U.S. foreign assistance cuts"
• "World Health Organization assembly, United States, Trump"
• "Chinese Assistance Won't Replace USAID. That's the Problem."

Week 4 · Mon Sep 14 · Wed Sep 16

Measuring aid

Required readings

• "Empowering women through development aid: Evidence from a field experiment in Afghanistan."
• “Lies, Damned Lies and Aid Statistics.”
• Banking on Beijing: The aims and impacts of China's overseas development program
• Poor numbers: how we are misled by African development statistics and what to do about it

Case study

• "The Economic Impact of the USAID Shutdown"
• "Marco Rubio, USAID, death, sickle cell, Nigeria"
• "Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030"
• "Update on Lives Lost from USAID Cuts"
• "Impact of two decades of humanitarian and development assistance and the projected mortality consequences of current defunding to 2030"

Week 5 · Mon Sep 21 · Wed Sep 23

Public opinion

Required readings

• “Race, paternalism, and foreign aid: Evidence from US public opinion.”
• "Language, Skin Tone, and Attitudes toward Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria."
• "Public support for climate adaptation aid and migrants: a conjoint experiment in Japan."
• "Aid cuts increase demand for government services and taxation: Evidence from halting USAID funding."

Case study

• "Benefits, financial support after job loss, and why programme design matters"

Week 6 · Mon Sep 28 · Wed Sep 30

Development bureaucracies

Required readings

• Peaceland: Conflict resolution and the everyday politics of international intervention
• "The everyday emotional lives of aid workers: how humanitarian anxiety gets in the way of meaningful local participation."
• "The Death of USAID: How Elon Musk and Donald Trump Ended America's Foreign Aid Agency."
• "Foreign Aid Volatility and Institutional Development."

Case study

• "USAID, Trump, humanitarian, Rubio, Musk"
• "HIV/AIDS, PEPFAR, Bush"
• "Health care aid cuts, Uganda"
• "Aid shocks and political conflict"

Week 7 · Mon Oct 5 · Wed Oct 7

Domestic politics

Required readings

• "How political insiders lose out when international aid underperforms: Evidence from a participatory development experiment in Ghana."
• "How aid targets votes: the impact of electoral incentives on foreign aid distribution."
• "Rethinking foreign aid and legitimacy: views from aid recipients in Kenya."
• "Domestic Causes, Global Consequences: The US Mexico City Policy's Global Impact on Intimate Partner Violence."
• "Africa beyond aid? The effects of foreign aid cutbacks on party competition and clientelism."

Case study

• "What will rescission do to foreign aid? Details are murky"
• "PEPFAR, HIV/AIDS, rescission"
• "An Update on PEPFAR Reauthorization"

Week 8 · Mon Oct 12 · Wed Oct 14

Refugees

Required readings

• "When “humanitarianism” becomes “development”: the politics of international aid in Syria's Palestinian refugee camps."
• When Blame Backfires: Syrian Refugees and Citizen Grievances in Jordan and Lebanon
• "Aid Cuts and the Politics of Refugee Hosting."
• "Disrupted Aid, Displaced Lives: Unraveling the Impact of Refugee Aid Cuts."

Case study

• "Vaccines, measles, diarrhea, pneumonia, Sudan"
• "Trump, Africa, HIV/AIDS, orphan, USAID"
• "Death, Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking: Fallout From U.S. Aid Withdrawal Hits the World's Most Fragile Locations"

Week 9 · Mon Oct 19 · Wed Oct 21

Conflict

Required readings

• "Alms dealers: can you provide humanitarian aid without facilitating conflicts?"
• "Bases, bullets, and ballots: The effect of US military aid on political conflict in Colombia."
• "Aiding peace or conflict? The impact of USAID cuts on violence."
• "Aid shocks and political conflict: Evidence from the disruption to United States foreign aid."

Case study

• "Well-managed aid reduces conflict"

Week 10 · Mon Oct 26 · Wed Oct 28

Private actors in international development

Case study

• "A matchmaking service with a twist: connecting big givers to programs cut by USAID"
• "How ex-USAID staffers turned crisis into action and mobilized $110M"

Week 11 · Mon Nov 2 · Wed Nov 4

Aid, trade, and FDI

Required readings

• "Funding self-sustaining development: The role of aid, FDI and government in economic success."
• "FDI, poverty, and the politics of potable water access."
• "Why foreign investment still polarizes India."

Case study

• "Neglected tropical diseases, USAID cuts, pharmaceuticals"
• "Vulnerable nations on the brink: the double shock of aid cuts and US tariff increases"

Week 12 · Mon Nov 9 · Wed Nov 11

Migration and remittances

Required readings

• “Aid Allocation and Targeted Development in an Increasingly Connected World.”
• "When the money stops: Fluctuations in financial remittances and incumbent approval in Central Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia."
• “International migration kickstarted structural transformation in Malawi.”

Case study

• "Money for nothing? The roles and evidence of GiveDirectly's journey to $1 billion delivered"
• "Cash aid, Trump White House, barbershop, Mozambique"
• "The end of development aid? How aid cuts may reshape migration management"
• "U.S. Foreign Aid Cuts Include Up to $2.3 Billion for Migration Management and Displacement Programs"
• "After Aid Cuts, Here's How to Make the Most Out of Remittances"

Week 13 · Mon Nov 16 · Wed Nov 18

Culture clashes

Required readings

• " Lost" Causes: Agenda Vetting in Global Issue Networks and the Shaping of Human Security
• When norms collide: Local responses to activism against female genital mutilation and early marriage
• "Queer dilemmas: LGBT activism and international funding."
• "The flag and the stick: Aid suspensions, human rights, and the problem of the complicit public."

Case study

• "Birth control, foreign aid destruction, Belgium warehouse"
• "The U.S. is destroying $9.7 million in contraceptives"
• "RFK Jr., vaccines, safety, Gavi"
• "UNAIDS, South Africa, Trump, HIV/AIDS"

Week 14 · Mon Nov 30 · Wed Dec 2

Climate change and aid

Required readings

• "Creating climate coalitions: mass preferences for compensating vulnerability in the world's two largest democracies."
• "Coding error or statistical embellishment? The political economy of reporting climate aid."
• “A Proposal to Make Migration Work for Adaptation: Classifying Remittances as Climate Finance.”

Case study

• "Jamaica, Melissa hurricane relief, USAID"
• "The Impacts of USAID Cuts: Less Climate Resilience, More Forced Displacement"
• "Trump's Chaotic USAID Cuts Unleashed Floods, Disease and Poverty"