United States Institute of Peace

International Network for Economics and Conflict

Economic Assistance in Conflict Zones: Lessons from Afghanistan

Written by Ethan Kapstein and Kamna Kathuria, Center for Global Development

The recent announcement that NATO troops would leave Afghanistan in 2014 brings into sharp relief the question of whether that country will be able to find lasting peace and prosperity without a significant foreign military presence.

In this policy paper, Ethan Kapstein and Kamna Kathuria examine the issue through the lens of foreign-assistance policy. They argue that donors face a fundamental tension between the short-run demands of financing a war effort and the long-run demands of sustainable economic development and that the search for a resolution to this dilemma is central to understanding how foreign assistance policy is shaped in conflict zones like Afghanistan.

Read the paper here.

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