Podcasts of Targeted Development at Center for Global Development and Policy 360
Brookings Institution blog post: “Development, Self-Interest, and Countries Left Behind,” February 7, 2018
Abstract: Industrialized states find it increasingly difficult to insulate themselves from spillovers associated with underdevelopment abroad. In a globalizing world many concerns caused or enhanced by underdevelopment – migration, political instability, violence, refugee flows, trafficking in persons and illicit substances, spread of disease, lawlessness and its ability to provide havens for terrorists and criminals, pollution, and others – are not confined within national borders. Industrialized states, unable to protect themselves from the impact of events in developing countries, have responded with a strategy of targeted development: pursuing development abroad when and where it serves their own self-interest. This book examines the emergence of targeted development as an important foreign policy goal of wealthy states. Through historical comparisons, the development of a formal model, and empirical analysis of foreign aid, trade agreements, and climate finance, the book demonstrates that targeted development has emerged as an important component of foreign policy across multiple issue areas linking industrialized and developing countries. These findings show a rising importance for development in foreign policy and have implications for understanding which countries are likely to be left behind by globalization, the role of international institutions in promoting development, and the study of effectiveness for development policies.
Praise for Targeted Development:
“Targeted Development should be widely read by IR scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, as well as members of the policy-making community. Bermeo’s new framework takes us beyond the donor interest versus recipient need debate and will likely shape international development discourse for years to come.”
Simone Dietrich, University of Geneva, The Review of International Organizations
“Sarah Bermeo develops a rigorous, and convincing, theory, and subjects it to a series of quantitative and qualitative evaluations. The result is an excellent, pioneering, study of the political economy of development assistance, especially in the post-Cold War world.”
Jeffry Frieden, Department of Government, Harvard University
“This is a sweeping, original and important study of the international politics of development that reframes existing debates and fits the pieces together with an audible snap. We have been thinking about development assistance incorrectly, because altruistic and self-interested motives are not mutually exclusive.”
Randall W. Stone, Professor of Political Science, University of Rochester
“Bermeo presents the view that shifting priorities and increasing globalization have aligned rich country interests with efforts to promote economic development in targeted poor countries. Targeted Development provides a unique lens through which to interpret post-2001 shifts in foreign aid, trade policy, and climate funding. The book makes a compelling case for a new approach to analyze international economic policy.”
Christopher Kilby, Professor of Economics, Villanova School of Business
Reviewed in The Review of International Organizations (Simone Dietrich); Perspectives on Politics (Matthew Winters)
Oxford University Press, 2018: visit site
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