The Role of Foreign Assistance
in Conflict Prevention
January 8, 2001 Conference
Jointly Sponsored by:
The U.S. Agency for International Development and
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
On
January 8, 2001, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars jointly sponsored a conference in Washington, DC titled, "The Role of Foreign Assistance in Conflict Prevention." Participating were over 80 experts from USAID, the State Department, the National Intelligence Council, Congressional staff, academic institutions, the business community, and non-profit organizations.
This conference followed an internal USAID workshop on conflict prevention held in June 2000 and a small group session with Congressional Hill staffers, USAID employees, and members of the Woodrow Wilson Center in December 2000. The purpose of the January conference was to shape a new vision for foreign assistance by developing a long-term strategy keyed to conflict prevention and building capable societies. This new perspective involves rethinking our traditional concepts of national security to embrace a broader spectrum of political, economic, and social issues (often with a transnational character) that will have a direct impact on the core needs of the American people. The new vision also involves changing how traditional development assistance programs are formulated and substantially enhancing collaboration and coordination within and among governmental and nongovernmental foreign aid providers.
Several key themes emerged from the discussion:
Recognize the importance of conflict prevention. Despite numerous initiatives, U.S. Government agencies have been slow to incorporate conflict prevention in their planning process. In order to quench fires before they become unmanageable, an early warning system needs to be developed to alert policymakers to key areas of potential conflict. Development strategies for a particular country or region need to be based on an analysis of the root causes - as well as the drivers and inhibitors - of conflict.
Expand the definition of national security. Traditionally, policymakers have viewed foreign assistance through a narrow, national security interest lens. This approach ignores long-term problems such as demographic pressures, environmental threats, and economic concerns. It also fails to account for the increasingly transnational nature of these problems, as well as the newly emerging multinational actors who are capable of exploiting these vulnerabilities at the expense of the United States.
Construct capable states. The development of key political and economic institutions serves as a panacea to combat the new set of post Cold War uncertainties. Institution building occurs through fostering democratic governance, which empowers citizens and provides checks and balances on power. The development and maintenance of stable market economies is also a key prerequisite for institution building.
Build local capacity. Rather than engage in a top-down, "downstream" form of institution-building developed and managed by outsiders, the new vision embraces "upstream" implementation by local actors. Through an upstream approach, citizens can learn self-governance, with outside assistance playing a facilitating role.
Engage multiple actors. In order to implement the new vision of institution building to combat transnational problems, the skills and expertise of multiple actors will be needed. USAID's core capabilities should be reinforced by, and synchronized with, the work of others in the United States Government (the State Department, the Defense Department, the Intelligence Community, Congress) and the private sector (businesses, private voluntary organizations, nongovernmental organizations). All of these organizations need to be involved at various stages in the design and implementation of the new foreign assistance vision.
Develop better mechanisms for collaboration. Because of the expanded number of actors needed to implement the new foreign assistance vision, a new system for inter-agency collaboration will be needed. The distinctive cultures of the agencies currently involved in foreign assistance should be encouraged to promote greater information sharing, increase coordination, and allocate tasks more efficiently in order to avoid duplication and conserve precious foreign aid resources.
The conference was organized around the following themes: the rationale for changing current approaches to development assistance, American priorities post-Cold War and the new conflict prevention paradigm, the root causes of conflict and the need to build capable states, coordinating a more effective crises response capacity within the U.S. Government, new challenges for development assistance, and emerging threats and dimensions of instability in the twenty-first century and the resulting need for a more integrated response capacity. This paper summarizes the presentations and highlights key themes that emerged from the proceedings, offering some concluding remarks and strategies for the future. The papers presented at the conference are included as appendices.
Click here to access the January 2001 "Role of Foreign Assistance" conference report Table of Contents.
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