Resources / Book of the Month

If you’ve ever asked yourself why so much of the world is so screwed up, you might want to read this book. It is said that author William Easterly was practically driven out of his position at the World Bank after positing some of his theories, and from the bit of experience we’ve had with international development agencies, we believe it.

In short, Easterly points to Western aid dollars as the source of much of the misery in the so-called “developing” world. He traces in particular the United States’ policies of giving billions to corrupt, authoritarian regimes not because they could be relied upon to use the aid to help their peoples, but because they were of (often dubious) strategic importance to US foreign policy interests. It’s a long, complicated story, but told in a straightforward way that makes this book engaging reading.

Easterly doesn’t let the Europeans off the hook either, with England, France and Belgium faring especially poorly. If you saw the film Hotel Rwanda you will have some idea of the role that Belgium played in setting the stage for tribal warfare when it abruptly pulled out of the Congo area early last century. Then there is the perennial mess in the Middle East which, according to Easterly, is a legacy of England’s bungling at border-drawing after WWI.

All of this is detailed in a chapter toward the end of the book called From Colonialism to Post-Modern Imperialism, which draws some thoughtful parallels between the meddling that the US is doing today in Iraq and various countries around the world, and similar forays conducted by the European powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This chapter alone is well worth the price of this well-written and enlightening book.