Today We Drop Bombs, Tomorrow We Build Bridges: How Foreign Aid Became a Casualty of War

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Eye-opening and controversial, Peter Gill reveals first-hand the dilemmas of providing foreign aid at the sharp end. 'An indispensible inquiry into our moral health and humanity.' LSE Review of Books The war on terror has politicised foreign aid as never before. Aid workers are being killed at an alarming rate and civilians in war-torn countries abandoned to their fate. From the ravaged streets of Mogadishu to the unending struggle in Helmand, Peter Gill travels to some of the most conflict-stricken places on earth to reveal the true relationship between the aid business and Western security. While some agencies have clung to their neutrality against ever stiffer odds, others have compromised their impartiality to secure the flow of official funds. In a world where the advance of Islamic State constitutes the gravest affront to humanitarian practice and principle the aid community has faced in decades, Gill poses the crucial question – can Western nations fight in a country and aid it at the same time? Cover......Page 1 Half Title......Page 2 Dedication......Page 3 Title Page ......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Introduction ......Page 12 Part I: Front Lines......Page 20 1. End of the White Saviour......Page 22 2. Development at Gunpoint......Page 41 3. Meetings with Remarkable Men......Page 62 4. Taking a Bullet for Polio......Page 81 5. Frontier Manoeuvres......Page 101 6. Blue Un, Black Un......Page 116 7. Delay Costs Lives......Page 134 8. Acts of Faith......Page 153 Part II: Home Fronts......Page 170 9. With All Those Who Suffer......Page 172 10. When Aid Becomes a Crime......Page 189 11. Doing Well by Doing Good......Page 207 12. The Police, Not the Stasi......Page 224 13. Making Poverty History?......Page 240 14. French Lessons......Page 263 15. Running Out of Words......Page 279 Conclusion: How Many Cheers for Neutrality?......Page 292 Notes......Page 300 Bibliography......Page 307 Index......Page 310