last bit Flashcards
History of Development Aid
Aid is often in the form of money allocated for specific purposes; in 2014, 17% of EU aid was for ‘government and civil society’ and
17% for ‘humanitarian aid’ - both concerning Human Rights
- Can be given bilaterally or multilaterally. Bilateral aid allows a country to pursue its own agenda
- Multilateral aid different as given through Un, World bank but these are heavily influenced by powerful countries
Official Development Assistance - A term used by the OECD to measure aid. It is widely used as an indicator of flows of international aid. (Flows are transfers of resources either in cash/commodities/services)
UK’s Bilateral Aid
Government’s target - 0.7 per cent of gross national income on international aid
• This equated £11.2 billion in 2013
Development aid contraversial?
Controversial?
* In 2012 the UK donated £86.8 million to help people in Somalia, ranked the most corrupt nation in the world.
Much aid is in the forms of loans which attract interest - all too easy to enter a spiral of debt
Is it a matter of friendship
Development aid good
Good
•
More acceptable is the idea of technical assistance - transfer of expertise/skills/technology, better than bottom up
Is philanthropy really dead?
Trade embargos
Foreign policies or laws that ban exports to and imports from a country in protest against actions by that country
Can be effective in bringing about change because without exports national income is reduced
Strategic goods and technology, especially military arms and equipment are banned from export when there are concerns about human rights violation, instability or international security threats e.g. weapons of mass destruction
Exports of medicine and food can continue for humanitarian aid reasons
Usually imposed by UN or EU
Examples of trade embargo’s
Iran - concerns over enriched Uranium. Lifted in 2016
South Africa - effective trade embargo during apartheid years of 1948-
1994
North Korea (Internal repression and instability)
Democratic Republic of Congo (Totalitarian State)
USA and Cuba - Trade embargo. Condemned by the UN. Costs Cuba an estimated $685 million a year. USA loses out $1.2 bn a year. Lifted 2016 under Obama
Positives of trade embargos
Severe economic implications can be enough to bring about regime change/change in attitudes
Negatives of trade embargos
Less money generated for the country. Civilians might lose out even further.
Usually leads to a diplomatic fall out
Can also do it to protect domestic production, therefore rich countries get richer and poor get poorer
Military aid
- Sometimes given to countries whose human rights record over time is poor
- Often given at a change of regime so that there is support for improvement in Human Rights (e.g. Bolivia, Zimbabwe, Egypt)
- Top receivers of US foreign military spending in 2015 were the worst human rights offenders in 2014.
- They were Pakistan, Iraq and Yemen
Military aid e.g human rights in jordon
- Issues regarding Human Rights - accepted refugees from Syria but refused entry to all Palestinian refugees escaping Syria and detained and deported those who entered Jordan illegally.
- Government narrowed scope of judicial courts and broadened anti-terrorism laws in such a way to threaten freedom of speech.
- Torture pursued and was not recognised by the justice system.
- 2014 - US renewed a 5 year aid package.
- Provides $360 million in economic assistance, $300 million in foreign military finance and $340 million towards costs caused by instability (e.g. looking after refugees and border security).
- However, Freedom Index Score still only 36/100 in 2016.
Disadvantage of military aid
• Aid may be given for political reasons to gain influence in a country or key region e.g. Russia supporting the Assad regime or USA
supporting Jordan in order to gain a foothold in the region
Takes a huge amount of time for political and cultural change, sometimes countries return to old ways
Military action
- Since the terrorist attacks on civilians in 2001, some countries have been involved in direct military intervention in places where terrorist groups are known to operate
- The Institute for Economics and Peace Global Terrorism Index of 2015 showed that in 2014 terrorism concentrated in 5 countries, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria These countries accounted for 78% of the lives lost globally
- While terrorism has spread widely in the world, 92% of all attacks were in countries that supported political violence and countries which had a lack of respect for human rights
ISIS - military aid
Most organised terrorist organisation with 31,000 fighters and wealthiest due to oil gaining territory in
Iraq and Syria to form caliphate
The US and UK used air strikes to halt and weaken IS
Military action - war in Afghanistan
Following 9/11, under a security council resolution, America lead an international military assault on Afghanistan.
AIM - Bombing raids on Terrorist Training Camps and to Kill Terrorist Leaders
Methods - Dominate Afghan cities and support Afghan Northern Alliance (resistors to the Taliban) Successful?? At what cost?? -
* Osama Bin Laden Killed in Pakistan May 2nd 2011
Democracy instilled - Hamid Karzai elected Afghan President 2004 and 2009. (Came to power Dec 2001, chosen by officials)
* Removal of Taliban Regime Dec 2001
Rules on women’s Islamic dress and schooling lifted
Afghan Army Trained
USA - 2,175 U.S. military deaths in the war in Afghanistan, Costs the US military $100 million a year. Accepted 90,000 refugees from Afghanistan
UK - Estimated cost of war is {12 billion, 444 soldiers killed in Afghan campaign, 2,600 British troops wounded in the conflict, 5,000 psychologically injured, Afghan is the Uk’s ‘top foreign policy priority’, and it will receive a total of £710m in aid in five years. UK aid in 2014/15: £178m, Accepted 56,000 refugees from Afghanistan.
Advantages of military action
Can be argued that a change in regime in Afghanistan reduces the terrorist threat to the Uk There have been successes in improving Human Rights in these areas
