With my research,
I am seeking to understand whether or not programs funded by the United States
Agency for International Development and their private partners facilitate the
opening of new markets in post-conflict countries where the United States has
influence over public policies and whether or not that allows USAID’s private
partners to financially benefit from resources in those nations. I became
interested in this project after reading literature on the conflict resolution
field and the question of empire. I found that there was literature grounded in
theory about this question, but the question was supported by little empirical
data. This project relates to my long-term goals of finding ways to empirically
study the question of empire and understanding the ways in which it operates
within the conflict field.
My research focuses
on a single project that is being implemented in Africa. Due to my inability to
travel to Africa this semester, my research concentrates on analyzing project
reports, legal documents, and electronic media sources on my topic. On a weekly
basis, I search through these documents—a very time consuming task—and analyze
the implementation of projects, determine whether or not the projects sought to
change public policies in the countries I am studying, and analyze the reaction
of civil society to the implementation of such projects. As I find this
information, I utilize a process-tracing technique to effectively tie together
all of these components to provide a basis for causal inference.
This week, and
every week since developing this project idea, I discovered that completing
academic research that involves analyzing the actions of private companies,
even when they are partners with public organizations, is very difficult. This
is because oftentimes data and reports on projects conducted by private
partners are not always easily accessible. While this has highlighted the
limitations of certain types of research, and made completing my project
challenging, it has also made me more excited to continue exploring these difficult
questions.
