2017/05/05 by Burcu Savun, Daniel C. Tirone · 33 citations
Social Sciences · #Civil society #Corporate governance #Democracy #Development economics #Economics #Function (biology) #International Development and Aid #Law #Pessimism #Political Conflict and Governance #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Religion, Society, and Development #Terrorism
paper · doi:10.1177/0022002717704952
published in Journal of Conflict Resolution 62(8), 1607-1635 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2017/05/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Is foreign aid effective in reducing terrorism? The existing evidence is mostly negative. We argue that this pessimistic outlook on the efficacy of aid as a counterterrorism tool is partly a function of focusing on only one type of aid: economic aid. Governance and civil society aid can dampen the participation in and support for terrorism by altering the political conditions of a country. We expect countries that receive high levels of governance and civil society aid to experience fewer domestic terrorist incidents than countries that receive little or none. Using a sample of aid eligible countries for the period from 1997 to 2010, we find that governance and civil society aid is effective in dampening domestic terrorism, but this effect is only present if the recipient country is not experiencing a civil conflict. Our findings provide support for the continued use of democracy aid as a counterterrorism tool.