Foreign Aid Civil War

Foreign aid is a very important part of decreasing poverty and creating a more peaceful environment for everyone around the world. One of the largest impediments to peace and prosperity is internal conflict. Foreign aid can be used to help prevent civil wars, mitigate its effects, and recover from its destruction. Which of these options is most effective in its objective? From researching each perspective, it is evident that preventing and recovering from civil war through the application of foreign aid is more successful than giving aid during a war. There are many negatives that accompany aid when it is delivered during a war. It might be in the best interest of international aid organizations and the international community as a whole to …show more content…
From 1945 to 1999 there have been 127 civil wars in 73 states and resulted in an estimated 16.2 million deaths as a direct result from conflict (Fearon & Laitin, 2003). This compares to 3.33 million people killed during the same period of time in interstate wars (Fearon & Laitin, 2003). To be considered a civil war there are three requirements. There needs to be at least two sides to the conflict, one being the state and the other a non-state group who is trying to gain control of the state or trying to achieve a political objective (Fearon & Laitin, 2003). Second, there must be at least a thousand battle deaths and a yearly average of at least one hundred deaths (Fearon & Laitin, 2003). Third their needs to be at least 100 deaths on both sides to determine that both sides were a capable opposition (Fearon & Laitin, 2003). Foreign Aid can be used in a variety of way in a civil war. Some ways are more effective than others and that needs to be analyzed. Timing is an important part of this as aid can be used to help prevent a civil war, during to minimize the negative effects on the population, or after to help recover and prevent another war from …show more content…
Even if there was a proven strategy it is unlikely to be able to prevent all civil wars from starting through giving aid. There must also be a consideration to what will happen once a civil war does break out. This is one of the most difficult but important times to send aid and assistance to a country. There will be many civilians caught in the middle of a militarized conflict and have a huge effect on them being able to get the resources they need to survive. Will incoming aid effectively be directed at those innocent people who need it most? If aid is brought in will this have any effect on how long this conflict will last? These are all things that must be considered in order to justify sending aid. Sometimes doing nothing and allowing the conflict to resolve itself can be the best option, on the other hand this is a life and death decision and by giving aid it could prevent the suffering of innocent people and perhaps