Foreign Aid Agenda in Lebanon: Reinforcing Stabilization and Securitization of the State

Abstract

This master’s project will demonstrate the securitization of foreign aid policy and its relations with developing countries, particularly Lebanon. It also assesses how and to what extent the donor community uses a security lens that determines the developmental approach towards Lebanon and the developing world. By reviewing the available public data and findings regarding foreign aid to Lebanon, this paper will answer the rationale for the “securitization” of foreign aid, and find the expected benefits of aid as a stabilization tool at the strategic level. It will identify the viability of foreign aid, and its intended purposes, especially with regard to stabilization and securitization in Lebanon. One of the core objectives will be to highlight how donors use aid to advance their security objectives rather than recipients’ development needs. In the case of Lebanon as a recipient country, the purpose of this research is to explore whether foreign aid produced stabilization effects and whether aid projects to Lebanon’s national security agencies, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Internal Security Forces (ISF) improved security in Lebanon? Furthermore, it studies how foreign aid and recipients’ policy regimes are two interconnected variables that influence aid effectiveness. This case study will also explore the level of foreign aid given to Lebanon and whether it fostered nation-building, governance, and stability. This paper also explores a controversial question within the Lebanese context. Who is responsible for the prospect of the success of foreign aid to stabilize Lebanon as a recipient country? Donors finance disbursement modus operandi or Lebanon’s absorption capacity? Therefore, the paper emphasizes what is needed to bolster and ensure effective aid absorption by recipient states and allocation by donors. Most importantly, it will highlight the ways to ensure that the initial phases of aid are complemented and used to synchronize aid with the country’s capacity to absorb and the need for optimization of the absorption capacity. As such, it shows the importance of creating a ministry in Lebanon charged with coordinating foreign aid that acts as a regulatory body and a unified counterpart for foreign aid.