Podcasts about aid dependence

Interview with Dr. Sophal Ear: 25:30 This week, Kelly and Tristan examine the backsliding of democracy in El Salvador and analyze the regional implications for President Bukele's political crackdown. They then explore Trump's escalating tariff war with India, which threatens to undermine the partnership between the world's two largest democracies. Next, they explore Japan's landmark $6.5 billion naval deal with Australia and what this historic sale signals for the efforts to counter China's presence in the Indo-Pacific. The episode concludes with Arizona State University Professor Dr. Sophal Ear joining Kelly to discuss the recent ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia and how the centuries-old dispute led to a five-day armed conflict. Dr. Sophal Ear is a tenured Associate Professor at Arizona State University's Thunderbird School of Global Management, where he teaches global political economy, international organizations, and regional management in Asia. His global experience includes consulting for the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, serving with the UNDP in East Timor, and holding leadership roles with Leopard Capital, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, SEARAC, and the Southeast Asia Development Program. He is the author of Viral Sovereignty and the Political Economy of Pandemics and Aid Dependence in Cambodia, and co-author of The Hungry Dragon. A graduate of Princeton and Berkeley, Dr. Ear came to the U.S. as a Cambodian refugee from France at age 10. Link to Viral Sovereignty and the Political Economy of Pandemics and Aid Dependence in Cambodia: https://www.routledge.com/Viral-Sovereignty-and-the-Political-Economy-of-Pandemics-What-Explains-How-Countries-Handle-Outbreaks/Ear/p/book/9781032133904?srsltid=AfmBOopGvH8ntwZwymgLaBYkSEo4M3bBDao9D0Z689sUYeHiutYZxC85 The opinions expressed in this conversation are strictly those of the participants and do not represent the views of Georgetown University or any government entity. Produced by Theo Malhotra and Freddie Mallinson.  Recorded on August 12, 2025. Diplomatic Immunity, a podcast from the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, brings you frank and candid conversations with experts on the issues facing diplomats and national security decision-makers around the world. Funding support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. For more, visit our website, and follow us on Linkedin, Twitter @GUDiplomacy, and Instagram @isd.georgetown

Professor Sophal Ear joins guest hosts John Morrell and Jenny Anderson, CIPE's Regional Director and Senior Program Officer for Asia and the Pacific. This is part of a mini-series around President Biden's Summit for Democracy. They talk about the risks of authoritarian regimes. For example, dictators, the professor notes, often present themselves as benevolent leaders, but are almost always corrupt and ineffective.   Relevant resource: "Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy" by Sophal Ear

In this sixth episode of Anakut, we discuss what lies after aid for Cambodia. We're already in a time when a fast-growing economy is pushing Cambodia into early middle-income status and into a new stage of development. That's not to say aid is leaving just yet, or that foreign money is going anywhere. To learn more, we invited Ear Sophal, associate professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College in the US. Sophal is a long-time political observer of Cambodian politics and, directly to our theme today, is the author of the 2013 Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy. Hit play to hear what lies beyond the aid horizon.

Shah Rafayat Chowdhury introduces us to his organization, Footsteps Bangladesh, which addresses social challenges in the fields of environment, health, and education with a vision of transforming community mentality from aid dependency to self-reliance. He further discusses design thinking on problem analysis, community approach, trust-building, and empowering with skill and knowledge. Join Cimpatico

Billed as “an exploration of the role of nationalist imaginings, discourses, and narratives in Cambodia since the 1993 reintroduction of a multiparty democratic system,” Cambodia’s Second Kingdom: Nation, Imagination, and Democracy (Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 2016) pays special attention to how competing nationalistic imaginings are a prominent part of contestation in the country’s post-war reconstruction politics. These imaginings, the book’s author Astrid Noren-Nilsson argues, constitute resources with which parties obtain popular support and win elections. In making her case, she draws on an impressive array of primary sources, including extensive interview data with members of Cambodia’s political elite. Duncan McCargo speaks with Astrid Noren-Nilsson for New Books in Southeast Asian Studies on the sidelines of the 2017 EuroSEAS conference at the University of Oxford, where Cambodia’s Second Kingdom was shortlisted for the EuroSEAS social science book prize. You may also be interested in: Sophal Ear, Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy Patrick Jory, Thailand’s Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man Duncan McCargo is Professor of Political Science at the University of Leeds and Visiting Professor of Political Science, Columbia University Nick Cheesman is a fellow in the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. He can be reached at nick.cheesman@anu.edu.au.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billed as “an exploration of the role of nationalist imaginings, discourses, and narratives in Cambodia since the 1993 reintroduction of a multiparty democratic system,” Cambodia’s Second Kingdom: Nation, Imagination, and Democracy (Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 2016) pays special attention to how competing nationalistic imaginings are a prominent part of contestation in the country’s post-war reconstruction politics. These imaginings, the book’s author Astrid Noren-Nilsson argues, constitute resources with which parties obtain popular support and win elections. In making her case, she draws on an impressive array of primary sources, including extensive interview data with members of Cambodia’s political elite. Duncan McCargo speaks with Astrid Noren-Nilsson for New Books in Southeast Asian Studies on the sidelines of the 2017 EuroSEAS conference at the University of Oxford, where Cambodia’s Second Kingdom was shortlisted for the EuroSEAS social science book prize. You may also be interested in: Sophal Ear, Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy Patrick Jory, Thailand’s Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man Duncan McCargo is Professor of Political Science at the University of Leeds and Visiting Professor of Political Science, Columbia University Nick Cheesman is a fellow in the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. He can be reached at nick.cheesman@anu.edu.au.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billed as “an exploration of the role of nationalist imaginings, discourses, and narratives in Cambodia since the 1993 reintroduction of a multiparty democratic system,” Cambodia’s Second Kingdom: Nation, Imagination, and Democracy (Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 2016) pays special attention to how competing nationalistic imaginings are a prominent part of contestation in the country’s post-war reconstruction politics. These imaginings, the book’s author Astrid Noren-Nilsson argues, constitute resources with which parties obtain popular support and win elections. In making her case, she draws on an impressive array of primary sources, including extensive interview data with members of Cambodia’s political elite. Duncan McCargo speaks with Astrid Noren-Nilsson for New Books in Southeast Asian Studies on the sidelines of the 2017 EuroSEAS conference at the University of Oxford, where Cambodia’s Second Kingdom was shortlisted for the EuroSEAS social science book prize. You may also be interested in: Sophal Ear, Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy Patrick Jory, Thailand’s Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man Duncan McCargo is Professor of Political Science at the University of Leeds and Visiting Professor of Political Science, Columbia University Nick Cheesman is a fellow in the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. He can be reached at nick.cheesman@anu.edu.au.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billed as “an exploration of the role of nationalist imaginings, discourses, and narratives in Cambodia since the 1993 reintroduction of a multiparty democratic system,” Cambodia’s Second Kingdom: Nation, Imagination, and Democracy (Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 2016) pays special attention to how competing nationalistic imaginings are a prominent part of contestation in the country’s post-war reconstruction politics. These imaginings, the book’s author Astrid Noren-Nilsson argues, constitute resources with which parties obtain popular support and win elections. In making her case, she draws on an impressive array of primary sources, including extensive interview data with members of Cambodia’s political elite. Duncan McCargo speaks with Astrid Noren-Nilsson for New Books in Southeast Asian Studies on the sidelines of the 2017 EuroSEAS conference at the University of Oxford, where Cambodia’s Second Kingdom was shortlisted for the EuroSEAS social science book prize. You may also be interested in: Sophal Ear, Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy Patrick Jory, Thailand’s Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man Duncan McCargo is Professor of Political Science at the University of Leeds and Visiting Professor of Political Science, Columbia University Nick Cheesman is a fellow in the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. He can be reached at nick.cheesman@anu.edu.au.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Although recent decades have brought with them many critiques of international development projects worldwide, Sophal Ear is especially well positioned to have written a book addressing the successes and failures of foreign donor assistance to countries emerging from long periods of violent conflict. A Cambodian trained in political science in the United States who also spent time working at the World Bank, Ear brings a no-nonsense approach to Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2013). Yet, this book is also informed by his personal experiences and reflects his aspirations for himself and his family, as well as for his country of birth. Beginning in the early 1990s with the United Nations' transitional authority and concentrating on the 2000s onwards, Ear asks: has foreign aid made Cambodia's government worse? How can evidence of rapid economic growth be reconciled with the country's patently inefficient and corrupt public institutions? And how might things be done differently? Drawing on a range of data from primary and secondary sources, his answers invite the reader to be more sensitive both to the particulars of Cambodia and to the larger questions with which he is engaged. The book's case studies of how the garment sector succeeds in overcoming state capture where others fail, top-down responses to avian flu, and efforts of donors to subsidize courageous yet constantly threatened civil society groups in the face of persistent authoritarian rule both illuminate and inform. Described as “an important book on the perverse effects of development aid on governance” (James Robinson, Harvard University), and one that is “both passionate and level-headed” (Michael Doyle, Columbia University), Aid Dependence in Cambodia is a “refreshing and badly needed effort at teasing out the relationship between governance and aid” (Sophie Richardson, author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence), in Cambodia, and in general.

Although recent decades have brought with them many critiques of international development projects worldwide, Sophal Ear is especially well positioned to have written a book addressing the successes and failures of foreign donor assistance to countries emerging from long periods of violent conflict. A Cambodian trained in political science in the United States who also spent time working at the World Bank, Ear brings a no-nonsense approach to Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2013). Yet, this book is also informed by his personal experiences and reflects his aspirations for himself and his family, as well as for his country of birth. Beginning in the early 1990s with the United Nations’ transitional authority and concentrating on the 2000s onwards, Ear asks: has foreign aid made Cambodia’s government worse? How can evidence of rapid economic growth be reconciled with the country’s patently inefficient and corrupt public institutions? And how might things be done differently? Drawing on a range of data from primary and secondary sources, his answers invite the reader to be more sensitive both to the particulars of Cambodia and to the larger questions with which he is engaged. The book’s case studies of how the garment sector succeeds in overcoming state capture where others fail, top-down responses to avian flu, and efforts of donors to subsidize courageous yet constantly threatened civil society groups in the face of persistent authoritarian rule both illuminate and inform. Described as “an important book on the perverse effects of development aid on governance” (James Robinson, Harvard University), and one that is “both passionate and level-headed” (Michael Doyle, Columbia University), Aid Dependence in Cambodia is a “refreshing and badly needed effort at teasing out the relationship between governance and aid” (Sophie Richardson, author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence), in Cambodia, and in general. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Is China a rogue donor, as some media pundits suggest? Or is China helping the developing world pave a pathway out of poverty, as the Chinese claim? This well-timed book provides the first comprehensive account of China's aid and economic cooperation overseas. Deborah Brautigam tackles the myths and realities, explaining what the Chinese are doing, how they do it, how much aid they give, and how it all fits into their "going global" strategy. Will Chinese engagement benefit Africa? Using hard data and a series of vivid stories ranging across agriculture, industry, natural resources, and governance, Brautigam's fascinating book provides an answer.Deborah Brautigam is the author of Chinese Aid and African Development, Aid Dependence and Governance, and coeditor of Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries. She is a professor in the International Development Program at American University's School of International Service in Washington, DC.Cosponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Is China a rogue donor, as some media pundits suggest? Or is China helping the developing world pave a pathway out of poverty, as the Chinese claim? This well-timed book provides the first comprehensive account of China's aid and economic cooperation overseas. Deborah Brautigam tackles the myths and realities, explaining what the Chinese are doing, how they do it, how much aid they give, and how it all fits into their "going global" strategy. Will Chinese engagement benefit Africa? Using hard data and a series of vivid stories ranging across agriculture, industry, natural resources, and governance, Brautigam's fascinating book provides an answer.Deborah Brautigam is the author of Chinese Aid and African Development, Aid Dependence and Governance, and coeditor of Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries. She is a professor in the International Development Program at American University's School of International Service in Washington, DC.Cosponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies.