States, Markets, and Foreign Aid
- New York Cambridge University Press 2021
- xiii,211p.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The motivation behind this book stems from a memorable incident that took place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina, in 2003. At the time, I was working for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on projects related to development and peace-building. One such project entailed a collaboration with the Office of the High Representative (OHR), the international institution responsible for overseeing the implementation of civilian aspects of the Peace Agreement ending the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina. At the urging of the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown, representatives of international financial organisations, the United States government, and local business elite launched a public-private partnership to reduce and remove laws and regulations perceived as barriers to private investment and job creation. The OHR figuratively embraced the interventionist nature of the project by naming it the 'Bulldozer Initiative' and setting the task of having '50 reforms enacted within 150 days'. For years, economic development of this kind was elusive and for good reasons: these efforts took place in a highly complex, post-conflict environment, presided over by foreign administrators, where politics remained deeply divided along ethnic lines and hope for a functioning and prosperous multi-ethnic state was a rare commodity