Aid for Elites: Building Partner Nations and Ending Poverty Through Human Capital

Current foreign aid programs are failing because they are based upon flawed assumptions about how countries develop. They attempt to achieve development without first achieving good governance and security, which are essential prerequisites for sustainable development. In focusing on the poorer members of society, they neglect the elites upon whose leadership the quality of governance and security depends. By downplaying the relevance of cultural factors to development, they avoid altering cultural characteristics that account for most of the weaknesses of elites in poor nations. Drawing on a wealth of examples from around the world, the author shows that foreign aid can be made much more effective by focusing it on human capital development. Training, education, and other forms of assistance can confer both skills and cultural attributes on current and future leaders, especially those responsible for security and governance.

Author: Mark Moyar
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 03/07/2016
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.82lbs
Size: 9.17h x 5.99w x 0.64d
ISBN: 9781107565012

About the Author
Moyar, Mark: - Mark Moyar is the author of numerous books and articles on national security and capacity building, including Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 and A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq. He has been a professor at the US Marine Corps University, where he held the Kim T. Adamson Chair of Insurgency and Terrorism, and, most recently, at the Joint Special Operations University. A frequent visitor to foreign conflict zones, he has served as a consultant to the senior leadership of several US military commands.