Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood: The NGOization of Palestine

In this article we examine the shifting roles played by non-state actors in governing areas of limited statehood. In particular we focus on the emergence of voluntary grassroots organizations in Palestine and describe how regimes of international development aid transformed these organizations into professional non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that created new forms of colonial control. Based on in-depth interviews with 145 NGO members and key stakeholders and a historical analysis of limited statehood in Palestine, we found that social relations became disembedded from the local context and re-embedded in new relations with international donor organizations resulting in a depoliticized public sphere. NGOization of the economy also resulted in new forms of exclusion and inclusion as well as contestations between a new class of urban middle class professionals working in NGOs and the older generation of activists that were involved in grassroots organizations. Our findings have implications for business and human rights and governance in areas of limited statehood, in particular how private actors like NGOs are able to exercise power in the economy

Libya and Europe: imperialism, crisis and migration

This article examines the recent dynamics of European imperialism in Libya in the light of Marx’s theory of the global reserve army of labour. It analyses the limited advance of Western imperialism in Libya in the decade before the 2011 uprisings, the interactions between local, regional and international forces during and after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervention, and, finally, the evolving migratory patterns from Libya. In this light, the instability along the southern and eastern Mediterranean coastline – a product of the uprisings and the forms of political reactions they unleashed – is simultaneously a security threat and a channel of migratory movements to European capitalism

The Political Economy of Aid in Palestine: Relief from Conflict or Development Delayed?

Despite for many years receiving the highest per capita aid worldwide, the economies of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have failed to achieve any lasting developmental outcomes and suffer from major weaknesses which undermine their very survival. This book argues that the dominant, mainstream approach to the study of aid and aid effectiveness is theoretically and empirically inadequate for a comprehensive understanding and analysis of the workings of aid in developing countries, particularly those undergoing conflict. This book examines the nature of donor operations in Palestine, highlighting the political and ideological determinants of aid allocation and effectiveness, and focussing on the role of trade-related donor assistance in Palestine, more commonly known as Aid for Trade. It discusses how such trade-related assistance is only another instance of donors working ‘around’ the conflict, as opposed to taking it into account; and how aid to Palestine cannot bring about significant improvement as long as the Palestinian economy is fundamentally affected by Israeli occupation, settlements and blockade. It argues that unless restructured and more carefully targeted, aid can only act as a temporary relief mechanism. Furthermore, the book sheds light on critical areas within Palestinian territories that are in need of development and require significant and immediate attention at both national and international level