Development Policy: The New Anti-Terrorism Policy

Abstract

International development policy has an important role to play in preventing terrorism that originates in developing countries, or that is supported by developing countries. However, countries that use their development policy to prevent terrorism run the following risks. First, using development policy to achieve anti-terrorism goals may result in the allocation of development funds and the institution of development programs that are guided by non- development policy objectives. Second, the use of development programs to achieve security goals may be ineffective if development assistance is used to support coercive state action by developed countries against developing countries, specific terrorists, or terrorist groups. Third, recent reviews of the implementation of coordinated security and development policies indicate that the political economy of government may make these coordinating programs inefficient and ineffictive. Fourth, there is a danger that development assistance will be infected by security goals that will make development policy seem illegitimate in the eyes of certain recipient countries. Fifth, the coordination of development and security policies risks reinforcing the ideology that supports terrorism by reinfocing the view that development aid is not about meeting the needs of develoipng countries, but about meeting the security needs of developed countries.

Keywords: anti-terrorism policy, international development policy, developing countries, international human rights, the ottawa principles