RAND ON DEVELOPMENT AID AND TERRORISM

. . .Read the report put out by RAND, Terrorism and Development (PDF file). The authors use programs in the Philippines, Northern Ireland, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip to examine whether and when development assistance can be helpful in staving off, as the authors put it, a "resurgence of terrorism." The basic conclusion of the study is that effective programs must be designed as part of a comprehensive plan that takes account of community needs and is linked with peace accords and other political instruments. Development programs that are well-designed and actually serve to build economic infrastructure can help to encourage potential terrorist recruits to eschew violence and enter productive occupations, and can also help create a middle class that is likely to reject terrorism. There is no certainty in any of these conclusions, of course, and the authors are at pains to discuss the limitations of their analyses. But the report should be part of a debate that gets beyond the "9/11 hijackers were middle-class Saudis" argument.