Aid dependence in Cambodia: How foreign assistance undermines Democracy
Date & time
Location
Free and open to the public.
About the talk
The more a country depends on aid, the more distorted are its incentives to manage its own development in sustainably beneficial ways. Cambodia, a post-conflict state that cannot refuse aid, is rife with trial-and-error donor experiments and their unintended results, including bad governance—a major impediment to rational economic growth. Based on a comparison of how more and less aid-dependent sectors have performed, Sophal Ear, Assistant Professor, Naval Postgraduate School, will highlight the complicity of foreign assistance in helping to degrade Cambodia's politicaleconomy.
About the Speaker
Dr. Sophal Ear is an assistant professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, where he teaches courses on postconflict reconstruction and political economy. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011 and a TED Fellow in 2009. Dr. Ear advises the University of Phnom Penh's master's program in development studies and serves on the international advisory board of the International Public Management Journal. He has degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University. His next book, The Hungry Dragon: How China's Resources Quest is Reshaping the World, co-authored with Sigfrido Burgos Cáceres—will appear in February 2013.