Journal Special Issue
Aid and Institution-Building in Fragile States

Findings from Comparative Cases

Why and how some states transition successfully from fragile to more robust—and some do not—are both topical and age-old questions. This volume of The ANNALS addresses these questions with particular attention to the role of foreign aid, offering new traction on theory development on state-building through the use of comparative analysis. Contributions cover selected major cases of aid-supported state-building from the end of the Second World War to the present. Collectively, they highlight the potential for external assistance both to stimulate change and to alter incentives toward institution-building in fragile states. They also show the limits of external assistance by emphasizing the decisive influence of domestic institutional legacies and political dynamics. This article frames the issues addressed in this volume and draws out key findings relevant to current public debates, including the limits to aid, the influence of historical state strength, institutional change through colonial and postcolonial interventions, and political economy incentives to maintain state weakness.

Table of contents
  1. Aid and Institution-Building in Fragile States: What Do We Know? What Can Comparative Analysis Add?
    Rachel M. Gisselquist
  2. International Aid to Southern Europe in the Early Postwar Period: The Cases of Greece and Italy
    Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos
    Working Paper
    | International Aid to Southern Europe in the Early Post-War Period
  3. U.S. Aid and Uneven Development in East Asia
    Kevin Gray
    Working Paper
    | Aid and Development in Taiwan, South Korea, and South Vietnam
  4. Aid and Governance in Vulnerable States: Bangladesh and Pakistan since 1971
    Mushtaq H. Khan
    Working Paper
    | Aid and Governance in Vulnerable States
  5. Foreign Aid, Resource Rents, and State Fragility in Mozambique and Angola
    Helena Pérez Niño, Philippe Le Billon
    Working Paper
    | Foreign Aid, Resource Rents and Institution-Building in Mozambique and Angola
  6. Consociational Settlements and Reconstruction: Bosnia in Comparative Perspective (1995–Present)
    Sherrill Stroschein
    Working Paper
    | Consociational Settlements and Reconstruction
  7. Kosovo and Timor-Leste: Neotrusteeship, Neighbors, and the United Nations
    Lise Morjé Howard
    Working Paper
    | State-Building Through Neotrusteeship
  8. Transition Regimes and Security Sector Reforms in Sierra Leone and Liberia
    Ato Kwamena Onoma
    Working Paper
    | Transition Regimes and Security Sector Reforms in Sierra Leone and Liberia
    Blog
    | Development, democracy and cohesion
  9. State Failure, State-Building, and Prospects for a “Functional Failed State” in Somalia
    Ken Menkhaus
    Working Paper
    | Aid and Institution-Building in Fragile States
  10. Intervention and State-Building: Comparative Lessons from Japan, Iraq, and Afghanistan
    Jonathan Monten
    Working Paper
    | Intervention, Aid, and Institution-Building in Iraq and Afghanistan
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