FYS 13 "The White Man’s Burden": Foreign Aid, Development and Neo-Imperialism
This course will provide an overview of foreign aid as a key global fiscal flow and its role in the development of the global south. Beginning from the origins of foreign aid and its strategic use by donors during the Cold War, it will reflect on how foreign aid has been used for multiple objectives, from propping up autocratic regimes to furthering donors' goals of promoting democracy. The course will highlight some of the macroeconomic changes that are driven by aid's transnational nature, including the emergence of a large NGO economy in the global south. Students will also be familiarized with the domestic consequences of foreign aid: what does aid mean for different groups in recipient countries (politicians might engage in corruption; voters might engage in accountability) and what agency they have in ensuring the efficient use of aid money. Finally, it will inspire students to think of what the best uses of aid might be in a post-pandemic world where it continues to remain relevant (and, as evidenced by vaccination flows, useful in some ways). Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to question the ethics of foreign aid and the positionality of the ?white men? in determining who gets aid and how.
Open only to first-year frosh.