Syllabus

Term

Fall 2026

Instructor

Professor Cleo O'Brien-Udry

Meets

Monday & Wednesday, 3:00–4:20 pm

Location

219 David Kinley Hall

Office hours

Mon & Wed 1–3 pm · DKH 309

Email

coudry@illinois.edu

Introduction

The goal of the class is to critically engage with international development practices. Students will practice skills relevant to working in the field, including project evaluation, policy writing, and critical analysis. Engaging in the political discussions of how and if development works, as well as the political consequences of development, is a central part of the course. The class focuses on foreign aid as a tool of development. Additional topics include foreign direct investment, military support, remittances, and trade.

This year, the course runs alongside a live natural experiment. In 2025, the United States dismantled USAID and rescinded large portions of its foreign assistance budget — the largest single contraction in the history of U.S. development policy. Every theoretical concept on this syllabus (geopolitics, bureaucracy, domestic politics, refugees, conflict, culture, etc.) has an active, unfolding real-world case attached to it. Each week's Wednesday session pairs that week's theory with a short case-study reading on the USAID withdrawal, drawn from ongoing journalism and contemporary policy analysis.

The course will be taught as a seminar. Students will be expected to: contribute substantively and thoughtfully to class discussions, including submitting weekly reading questions ahead of each Monday session [40% of course grade]; and sit a midterm and final policy memo exam, each an in-person, proctored writing session held outside of regular class time, presenting students with a real news article and asking them to write a policy memo in response [60%].

Course objectives

• Create policy recommendations for donors and recipients consistent with evidence from academic papers and local reports.
• Engage with the political causes and consequences of different international development interventions.
• Critically analyze the incentives of actors in international development.

Course requirements

1. Class participation (40%) - Attendance is required. Please email me at least one day beforehand if you need to miss class. You do not need to inform me of why, but after one unexcused absence this will be reflected in your final grade.

• Contributing productively to class is the core of this portion of your grade. Please come to class having read and engaged with the material.

• Weekly reading questions, due each Monday before class. Submit 2–3 discussion questions about that week's required readings here. These seed Monday's discussion. Graded credit/no-credit — submitted, and shows genuine engagement with the reading, not polish or length.

• If you are unable or have particular barriers to participating in class, please let me know as soon as possible so I can find alternative means of engagement!

• Be nice!

2. Midterm and Final Policy Memo Exams (60%) — in-person, not take-home

• Midterm memo exam (25%). A proctored, in-person writing session held outside of regular class time. Students are given a real news article at the start of the exam period and write a policy memo in response on the spot (up to 2 pages, ~500 words). Exact date, time, and room: TBD.

• Final memo exam (35%). Same format, 4 page memo. Grading rubric weights improvement on midterm feedback (structure, evidence use, actionability of recommendations) more heavily than the midterm did.

• Both exams are graded against the same rubric, built from the resources below and practiced throughout the semester (see "Policy Memo Training Arc"):

  • https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/broad/commkit/policy-memo/
  • https://harris.uchicago.edu/files/how_to_write_a_policy_memo_that_matters_0.pdf
  • https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Academic%20Dean's%20Office/communications_program/workshop-materials/Slides_How%20to%20Write%20a%20Policy%20Memo%202_14_22.pdf

Class structure

Mondays will be fully discussion-based–please be sure to have read the required texts! Wednesdays will take the form of a workshop. Each Wednesday has three parts: (1) the skill-building (memo-writing, data exploration, reading a graph), (2) a short case-study discussion applying that week's concept to the USAID withdrawal, using the assigned case reading(s) below, and (3), from Week 3 onward, a short memo-writing drill that builds the specific skill students will need for the midterm and final exams.

Class and University Policies

Accommodating tiny children

Tiny children are great. If you are breastfeeding or simply can't find child care, feel free to bring your baby to class. We'll make it work.

Accommodation for students with disabilities

The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign encourages the full participation of students with disabilities. Students with disabilities are encouraged to discuss special accommodations that may be needed for successful participation in this course. Specifically, the University accommodates students with disabilities who have registered with the Office of Student Disabilities Service. Students must register with the Student Disabilities Services (SDS) to be granted special accommodations for any on-going conditions. For more information on the services that you are entitled to, please refer to the following guide.

Religious Accommodation

The University accommodates students whose religious obligations conflict with attendance, submitting assignments, or completing scheduled tests and examinations. Please notify me in advance if you will require any accommodation on these grounds. For more information, please refer to UIUC's Policy on Religious Holidays.

Policy on Academic Misconduct

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. As outlined in the Student Handbook, “cheating” and “plagiarism” will result in severe disciplinary action on the part of the instructor. Either offense will be grounds for receiving a failing grade (zero points) on the assignment and possibly an “F” for the course, depending on the severity of the offense.

Policy on the use of Generative AI tools

The beta release of ChatGPT in November 2022 is a historical milestone. It is quite likely that using Generative AI tools are going to become an important skill for careers in the not distant future. In the meantime though, it is going to take a while for society (academia included) to figure out when using these tools is and isn't acceptable. There are at least three reasons why:

1. Work created by AI tools may not be considered original work and instead, considered automated plagiarism. AI-generated text is derived from previously created texts from sources that the models were trained on (but do not cite).

2. AI models have built-in biases, they are trained on limited underlying sources; they reproduce, rather than challenge, errors in the sources. ▪ This is particularly important for our course as much of the text of the internet upon which ChatGPT is trained is generated by the Global North, not the Global South.

3. AI tools have limitations, they lack critical thinking to evaluate and reflect on criteria; they lack abductive reasoning to make judgments with incomplete information at hand.

For the time being, in this class, you must meet with me about using AI tools in your work and carefully explain why and how these tools were used. In addition, you must adhere to the following rules:

1. You must clearly identify the use of AI-based tools in your work. Any work that utilizes AI-based tools must be clearly marked as such, including the specific tool(s) used. For example, if you use ChatGPT-3, you must cite "ChatGPT-3. (YYYY, Month DD of query). “Text of your query.” Generated using OpenAI. https://chat.openai.com."
2. You must be transparent in how you used the AI-based tool, including what work is your original contribution. An AI detector such as GPTZero (https://gptzero.me/) may be used to detect AI-driven work.
3. You must ensure your use of AI-based tools does not violate any copyright or intellectual property laws.
4. You must not use AI-based tools to cheat on assessments.
5. You must not use AI-based tools to plagiarize without citation.

Violations of this policy will be dealt with in accordance with UPenn's academic integrity policy. If you are found in violation of this policy, you may face penalties such as a reduction in grade, failure of the assignment, or even failure of the course. Finally, it's your responsibility to be aware of the academic integrity policy and take the necessary steps to ensure that your use of AI-based tools is in compliance with this policy. If you have questions, please speak with me first, as we navigate together how best to responsibly use these tools.  

Schedule Overview

Weekly Detail

Week 1: Mon 8/24, Wed 8/26 — What is international development

Required readings:

1. Easterly, William. "The cartel of good intentions." Foreign Policy (2002): 40-49.
2. Cheeseman, N., Swedlund, H.J., & O'Brien-Udry, C. (2024). "Foreign aid withdrawals and suspensions: Why, when and are they effective?" World Development, 178, 106571.

Wednesday case study — framing the semester's running case:

• NPR, "Trump, USAID and the humanitarian toll of the aid freeze" (7/1/2025)
• Optional context: NPR, "Jimmy Carter, Guinea worm..." (10/1/2025)

Wednesday workshop: Introduce USAID. In pairs, sketch a one-paragraph timeline of USAID's dismantlement to date; we'll revisit and extend this timeline each week.

Week 2: Mon 8/31 — Development philosophies

Single session this week

Required readings

1. Sen, Amartya. "Development as freedom (1999)." The globalization and development reader: Perspectives on development and global change 525 (2014). Ch 2: The Ends and Means of Development.
2. Ferguson, James. The Anti-politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. Cambridge University Press, 1990. Ch 2: Conceptual apparatus: the constitution of the object of “development” – Lesotho as “less developed country”
3. Oruka, Henry Odera. "The philosophy of foreign aid: A question of the right to a human minimum." Praxis International 8.4 (1988): 465-475.

Case study (folded into the same session):

• NPR, "Trump aid cuts leave charities in silence" (8/1/2025)
• Foreign Policy, "The Heyday of NGOs Ended Long Before the End of USAID" (9/8/2025)

Discussion prompt: Using Ferguson's "anti-politics machine," why might development organizations choose silence over public advocacy when their funding is cut?

Week 3: Wed 9/9 — Geopolitics

Single session this week

Required readings:

1. Radelet, Steven. "Bush and foreign aid." Foreign Affairs (2003): 104-117.
2. Clark, Richard, and Lindsay R. Dolan. "Pleasing the principal: US influence in World Bank policymaking." American Journal of Political Science 65.1 (2021): 36-51.
3. Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson. "The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation." American Economic Review 91.5 (2001): 1369-1401.

Case study:

• GoodAuthority, "Why militaries benefit from U.S. foreign assistance cuts"
• NPR, "World Health Organization assembly, United States, Trump" (5/19/2025)
• CGDev, "Chinese Assistance Won't Replace USAID. That's the Problem."

Memo training: formal lesson on policy memo structure and audience — issue, background, evidence, options, recommendation.

Week 4: Mon 9/14, Wed 9/16 — Measuring aid

Required readings:

1. Beath, Andrew, Fotini Christia, and Ruben Enikolopov. "Empowering women through development aid: Evidence from a field experiment in Afghanistan." American Political Science Review 107.3 (2013): 540-557.
2. Dissanayake, Ranil. “Lies, Damned Lies and Aid Statistics.” CGDev Blog. 20 April 2022.
3. Dreher, Axel, et al. Banking on Beijing: The aims and impacts of China's overseas development program. Cambridge University Press, 2022. Ch 3: Counting and Comparing Apples and Dragon Fruits.
4. Jerven, Morten. Poor numbers: how we are misled by African development statistics and what to do about it. Cornell University Press, 2013. Ch 2.

Wednesday case study:

• SSRN, "The Economic Impact of the USAID Shutdown"
• NPR, "Marco Rubio, USAID, death, sickle cell, Nigeria" (5/28/2025)
• The Lancet, "Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030"
• Kenny, C. & Sandefur, J. (2025). CGDev, "Update on Lives Lost from USAID Cuts"
• da Silva et al. (2026). The Lancet Global Health, "Impact of two decades of humanitarian and development assistance and the projected mortality consequences of current defunding to 2030"

Wednesday workshop: Explore aid data websites; present interesting findings/facts — students should attempt to sanity-check the SSRN paper's estimates against public aid-tracking data.

Memo training (drill 1): using the Rubio/sickle-cell article, each student writes a single BLUF ("bottom line up front") paragraph — the lead recommendation a memo would open with. Swap with a neighbor; can they tell what the recommendation is in one read?

Week 5: Mon 9/21, Wed 9/23 — Public opinion

Required readings:

1. Baker, Andy. “Race, paternalism, and foreign aid: Evidence from US public opinion.” American Political Science Review 109.1 (2015): 93-109.
2. Rivera-Burgos, Viviana. "Language, Skin Tone, and Attitudes toward Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria." American Political Science Review 117.3 (2023): 789-804.
3. Uji, Azusa, et al. "Public support for climate adaptation aid and migrants: a conjoint experiment in Japan." Environmental Research Letters 16.12 (2021): 124073.
4. Jablonski, R., Seim, B., & Yeandle, A. (2026). "Aid cuts increase demand for government services and taxation: Evidence from halting USAID funding." SSRN working paper.

Wednesday case study:

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

Wednesday workshop: How to read graphs; design public opinion survey — have students draft one survey item that could measure U.S. public support for restoring USAID funding.

Memo training (drill 2): pull one data point or figure from this week's public-opinion case reading and write the memo paragraph that uses it to back a recommendation

Week 6: Mon 9/28, Wed 9/30 — Development bureaucracies

Both sessions this week are virtual. Required readings

1. Autesserre, Séverine. Peaceland: Conflict resolution and the everyday politics of international intervention. Cambridge University Press, 2014. Ch 2: The Politics of Knowledge.
2. Hor, Amoz JY. "The everyday emotional lives of aid workers: how humanitarian anxiety gets in the way of meaningful local participation." International Theory 14.2 (2022): 358-387.
3. Moynihan, Donald. "The Death of USAID: How Elon Musk and Donald Trump Ended America's Foreign Aid Agency." Public Administration and Development (2025).
4. Iannantuoni, A. (2025). "Foreign Aid Volatility and Institutional Development." World Development, 189.

Wednesday case study:

• NPR, "USAID, Trump, humanitarian, Rubio, Musk" (7/1/2025) — the dismantlement itself
• NPR, "HIV/AIDS, PEPFAR, Bush" (6/6/2025) — for contrast, how the agency/program was built
• NPR, "Health care aid cuts, Uganda" (9/19/2025)
• Graham, J. (2026), "Aid shocks and political conflict" Background section (Section 3, pp. 3–8)

Virtual workshop: a structured discussion contrasting the bureaucratic build-up of PEPFAR (2003) with the 2025 dismantlement, using this week's Autesserre/Oksamytna frameworks on bureaucratic power (and now Moynihan's account of the dismantlement).

*Memo training (drill 3): 30-minute timed full one-page memo, using one of this week's PEPFAR/bureaucracy articles as the source.

Week 7: Mon 10/5, Wed 10/7 — Domestic politics

Required readings

1. Baldwin, Kate, et al. "How political insiders lose out when international aid underperforms: Evidence from a participatory development experiment in Ghana." World Development 169 (2023): 106296.
2. Jablonski, Ryan S. "How aid targets votes: the impact of electoral incentives on foreign aid distribution." World Politics 66.2 (2014): 293-330.
3. Dolan, Lindsay R. "Rethinking foreign aid and legitimacy: views from aid recipients in Kenya." Studies in Comparative International Development 55 (2020): 143-159.
4. Heinzel, M. & Weaver, C. (2025). "Domestic Causes, Global Consequences: The US Mexico City Policy's Global Impact on Intimate Partner Violence." International Studies Quarterly, 69(3).
5. Ahuja, Avi (2024). "Africa beyond aid? The effects of foreign aid cutbacks on party competition and clientelism." Working paper, New York University.

Wednesday case study:

• NPR, "What will rescission do to foreign aid? Details are murky" (7/31/2025)
• NPR, "PEPFAR, HIV/AIDS, rescission" (7/26/2025)
• KFF, "An Update on PEPFAR Reauthorization"

Wednesday workshop: Apply concepts in domestic politics of aid to recent news events; present — use the rescission vote as the case study.

Week 8: Mon 10/12, Wed 10/14 — Refugees

**Required readings:

1. Gabiam, Nell. "When “humanitarianism” becomes “development”: the politics of international aid in Syria's Palestinian refugee camps." American Anthropologist 114.1 (2012): 95-107.
2. Baylouny, Anne Marie. 2020. When Blame Backfires: Syrian Refugees and Citizen Grievances in Jordan and Lebanon. Cornell University Press. Ch 1 and 5.
3. MacDonald, Mae (2026). "Aid Cuts and the Politics of Refugee Hosting." Working paper, Stanford University.
4. 4. Grossman, G., Zhou, Y., Carvalho, S., & Dahr, I. (2026). "Disrupted Aid, Displaced Lives: Unraveling the Impact of Refugee Aid Cuts." Working paper, University of Pennsylvania/Dartmouth.

Wednesday case study:

• NPR, "Vaccines, measles, diarrhea, pneumonia, Sudan" (9/8/2025)
• NPR, "Trump, Africa, HIV/AIDS, orphan, USAID" (6/13/2025)
• ProPublica, "Death, Sexual Violence and Human Trafficking: Fallout From U.S. Aid Withdrawal Hits the World's Most Fragile Locations"

*Wednesday workshop: Explore differences between refugee groups and histories of aid and development — extend to how displaced and orphaned populations are affected differently by the funding cuts.

Week 9: Mon 10/19, Wed 10/21 — Conflict

Required readings: Gourevitch; Dube & Naidu; Moore; McMahon replaced with:

1. Gourevitch, Philip. "Alms dealers: can you provide humanitarian aid without facilitating conflicts?" New Yorker 11 (2010).
2. Dube, Oeindrila, and Suresh Naidu. "Bases, bullets, and ballots: The effect of US military aid on political conflict in Colombia." The Journal of Politics 77.1 (2015): 249-267.
3. Rohner, D., Sunde, U., Vanden Eynde, O., Wright, A.L., & Zeng, J.-R. (2026). "Aiding peace or conflict? The impact of USAID cuts on violence." Science, 392(6799).
4. Graham, Jimmy (2026). "Aid shocks and political conflict: Evidence from the disruption to United States foreign aid." SSRN working paper.

Wednesday case study:

• VoxDev, "Well-managed aid reduces conflict"

Wednesday workshop: Cases of military/conflict aid; explain how different dynamics emerge — now anchored by the Rohner et al. paper's finding, with the VoxDev piece as a secondary contrast (aid provision reducing conflict vs. aid withdrawal increasing it).

Memo training (drill 4): write a memo recommendation that has to weigh two conflicting stakeholder positions (e.g., a host government wanting the aid vs. a donor worried about diversion to armed groups) drawn from this week's conflict case. Focus: acknowledging the tradeoff explicitly rather than picking a side and ignoring the other.

Week 10: Mon 10/26, Wed 10/28 — Private actors in international development

Required readings: TBA (unchanged)

Wednesday case study (previously TBA):

• NPR, "A matchmaking service with a twist: connecting big givers to programs cut by USAID" (5/13/2025)
• Devex, "How ex-USAID staffers turned crisis into action and mobilized $110M"

Wednesday workshop: Discuss whether private philanthropic/venture capital is a substitute or a stopgap for state-run bilateral aid — use this piece as the launching case.

Memo training (drill 5): rewrite a memo recommendation for a non-state audience — a philanthropic funder or matchmaking platform instead of a government office — using this week's article. Focus: the ask, tone, and evidence a private funder needs are different from what a government office needs; students should be able to say specifically how.

Week 11: Mon 11/2, Wed 11/4 — Aid, trade, and FDI

Required readings:

1. Kosack, Stephen, and Jennifer Tobin. "Funding self-sustaining development: The role of aid, FDI and government in economic success." International Organization 60.1 (2006): 205-243.
2. Rudra, Nita, Meir Alkon, and Siddharth Joshi. "FDI, poverty, and the politics of potable water access." Economics & Politics 30.3 (2018): 366-393.
3. Pandya, Sonal S. "Why foreign investment still polarizes India." Washington Post blogs (2014).

Wednesday case study:

• NPR, "Neglected tropical diseases, USAID cuts, pharmaceuticals" (6/5/2025)
• ODI, "Vulnerable nations on the brink: the double shock of aid cuts and US tariff increases"

Wednesday workshop: discuss the pharmaceutical supply chain for neglected tropical diseases as a case of aid-trade-private sector interdependence.

Memo training (drill 6): take a full one-page memo (yours or a partner's from drill 3) and cut it to a single-paragraph executive summary. Focus: what survives the cut is what actually matters — a skill that pays off directly on both exams.

Week 12: Mon 11/9, Wed 11/11 — Migration and remittances

Required readings:

1. Bermeo, Sarah Blodgett. 2017. “Aid Allocation and Targeted Development in an Increasingly Connected World.” International Organization, 71:4 (Fall): 735-766.
2. Tertytchnaya, Katerina, et al. "When the money stops: Fluctuations in financial remittances and incumbent approval in Central Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia." American Political Science Review 112.4 (2018): 758-774.
3. Dinkelman, Taryn, Grace Kumchulesi, and Martine Mariotti. “International migration kickstarted structural transformation in Malawi.” VoxDev. 8 May 2024.

Wednesday case study:

• VoxDev, "Money for nothing? The roles and evidence of GiveDirectly's journey to $1 billion delivered"
• NPR, "Cash aid, Trump White House, barbershop, Mozambique" (8/6/2025)
• Mixed Migration Centre, "The end of development aid? How aid cuts may reshape migration management" (2025)
• Migration Policy Institute, "U.S. Foreign Aid Cuts Include Up to $2.3 Billion for Migration Management and Displacement Programs"
• CGDev, "After Aid Cuts, Here's How to Make the Most Out of Remittances"

Wednesday workshop: Peer review workshop, opened with a short discussion of direct cash transfers as an alternative delivery mechanism to traditional bilateral aid. Students peer-review a full practice memo (drawn from one of the earlier drills, not exam material) against the same rubric used for the midterm/final, then revise it based on that feedback — the last full-length rehearsal before the final exam.

Week 13: Mon 11/16, Wed 11/18 — Culture clashes

Required readings:

1. Carpenter, Charli. " Lost" Causes: Agenda Vetting in Global Issue Networks and the Shaping of Human Security. Cornell University Press, 2014. Ch 6: “His Body, His Choice”: Pitching Infant Male Circumcision to Health and Human Rights Gatekeepers
2. Cloward, Karisa. When norms collide: Local responses to activism against female genital mutilation and early marriage. Oxford University Press, 2016.
3. Moreau, Julie, and Ashley Currier. "Queer dilemmas: LGBT activism and international funding." Routledge handbook of queer development studies. Routledge, 2018. 223-238.
4. Dasandi, Niheer, and Lior Erez. "The flag and the stick: Aid suspensions, human rights, and the problem of the complicit public." World Development 168 (2023): 106264.

Wednesday case study:

• NPR, "Birth control, foreign aid destruction, Belgium warehouse" (9/16/2025)
• NPR, "The U.S. is destroying $9.7 million in contraceptives" (7/28/2025)
• NPR, "RFK Jr., vaccines, safety, Gavi" (7/1/2025)
• NPR, "UNAIDS, South Africa, Trump, HIV/AIDS" (7/10/2025)

Wednesday workshop: reproductive health and vaccine politics as the clearest "culture clash" case of the semester; connects directly to Carpenter/Cloward's norm-contestation frameworks.

Memo training (drill 7): write a recommendation on a values-conflict case (e.g., contraceptive destruction or vaccine-safety politics from this week's readings) where reasonable stakeholders disagree on the underlying norm, not just the facts. Focus: making a clear recommendation without pretending the disagreement doesn't exist — the hardest and most realistic version of the skill, one week before the final.

Week 14: Mon 11/30, Wed 12/2 — Climate change and aid

Required readings:

1. Gaikwad, Nikhar, Federica Genovese, and Dustin Tingley. "Creating climate coalitions: mass preferences for compensating vulnerability in the world's two largest democracies." American Political Science Review 116.4 (2022): 1165-1183.
2. Michaelowa, Axel, and Katharina Michaelowa. "Coding error or statistical embellishment? The political economy of reporting climate aid." World Development 39.11 (2011): 2010-2020.
3. Huckstep, Samuel and Jonathon Benyon. “A Proposal to Make Migration Work for Adaptation: Classifying Remittances as Climate Finance.” Center for Global Development. 8 October 2024.

Wednesday case study:

• NPR, "Jamaica, Melissa hurricane relief, USAID" (10/29/2025)
• Refugees International, "The Impacts of USAID Cuts: Less Climate Resilience, More Forced Displacement"
• Bloomberg, "Trump's Chaotic USAID Cuts Unleashed Floods, Disease and Poverty"

Wednesday workshop: Disaster relief capacity after USAID's dismantlement — a direct test case for this week's climate-finance readings.

Week 15: Mon 12/7 — Semester synthesis discussion

Workshop: Revisit and complete the running USAID dismantlement timeline started in Week 1. Discuss as a class: what generalized across this semester's theoretical frameworks, and what didn't?