Abstract
Recent studies present contrasting findings on how reconstruction and development aid affects security in wartime contexts. Some research has found that aid projects decrease violent incidences, while other work has found both no effect and suggestions of a positive relationship. In an effort to resolve the mixed empirical picture, this article examines the complex intra-communal dynamics spurred by the distribution of aid in rural Afghanistan. Drawing on original interviews conducted in a community of Majarh district, Helmand province, the analysis indicates that development aid helps to elevate previously relatively less powerful individuals into positions of community leadership. This newly generated class of local leadership subsequently development relationships to the community that differ from their predecessors since their social position is rooted in new sources of power. As a result, intra-community tension increases. These findings help to specify the conditions under which the delivery of aid does not help to win hearts and minds and potentially promotes conflict. In addition, the analysis underscores how consideration of antecedent social conditions and temporal processes can help further refine our understanding of the wartime relationship between aid and security. [JEL codes: D74, O53]
Highlights
Two of this century’s most costly and long-lasting wars, NATO’s intervention in Afghanistan and the American-led invasion of Iraq, have interwoven development with war-making, in part to win over the “hearts and minds” of the affected populace and help forestall insurgencies
Fieldwork in Afghanistan suggests that development aid has generated social tension and conflict
The evidence from Afghanistan suggests that development projects do not increase the benefit of participating in the formal labor market, which would in turn reduce the payoff of participating in rebellion
Summary
Two of this century’s most costly and long-lasting wars, NATO’s intervention in Afghanistan and the American-led invasion of Iraq, have interwoven development with war-making, in part to win over the “hearts and minds” of the affected populace and help forestall insurgencies. This has given rise to novel instruments of wartime development such as military-civilian Provincial Reconstruction Teams, as well as massive budgets. To address the mixed empirical picture of development efforts and (violent) conflict, this article examines the effect of outsider-provided aid on a rural Afghan community at the local level. In various African states, foreign aid since the 1970s has induced elites and potential civil society actors to be more attentive to donors and to pursue rent-seeking rather than to be responsive to the concerns of their communities.
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