The Effects Of War And Peace On Foreign Aid: Tajikistan Research Paper Samples

Introduction

In the midst of war and peace, the statuses of developing countries have been changing and fluctuating depending on the damages that the occurrences have brought about and the type and amount of aid they receive from foreign countries. As we all know, wars are usually characterized by extreme violence, social disruption and economic disruption that is why, it is known to influence and affect a nation greatly. (Coleman, 2009) Tajikistan, as a developing country, has been affected by one of the most known wars occurred in the world—the Civil War. It has affected the circulation and the lifestyle of the people in Tajikistan for roughly about five years, from 1992 to 1997. Civil War killed 50,000 – 100,000 Tajikistan citizens and has displaced more than a million people. This has left the country totally devastated and in need of foreign aid.

Effects of Peace and War on the Distribution of Foreign Aid

Tajikistan is just a small land with very rich natural resources—the reason why many countries crave for it. During wars and post wars, its devastations are the main reason why many help from different countries come to them. However, foreign aids also come when there is an absence of war or, in other words, when Tajikistan is at peace.
Foreign aid usually comes as in the form of intervention to reconcile the groups in Tajikistan. The Russian Federation has been able to reconcile the military – political confrontations in the country and that is one example of foreign aid. Another is when the Islamic Republic of Iran has intentionally played an important role in dispute reconciliation between the political groups of influential people and the government of Tajiks.
In terms of the effect of wars on the distribution of foreign aid, as the neighboring countries realize the extent of the post war damages, they started to offer helps for rehabilitation. Usually, the post conflict problems of Tajikistan revolve around poverty reduction, structural reforms, economic development and improvement of demographic situations due to displaced population. (Sapporo, 2004) Since India and Russia has been the two major fan of Tajikistan, they are usually the top two countries helping the said country.

Tajik Government and the Foreign Aid

Of course, foreign aid would not be enough and would not mean a thing if not handled properly by the government. The government has to exert efforts too; more than foreign countries do, to elevate the status of Tajikistan from any damages or impacts brought about by any circumstance.
However, according to Asia Report (2009), Tajik Government has been paying too little attention on the damages. Majority of its leaders have been focused more on their political interests and on the gains their allies get. That is why several recommendations addressed to the Republic of Tajikistan have arisen and some of these are as follows: (1) to have a policy of complete transparency most especially in economic sector, (2) impose necessary penal provisions to government officials found guilty of corruption and other scandals, (3) prepare emergency measures to mitigate further damage and (4) to put more attention to the disastrous state of different sectors. (Asia Report, 2009)
If all these recommendations will be considered by the government, then their existence will be somehow necessary and relevant to what the country truly needs.

Foreign Aid on Poverty Reduction and Minimization of Warfare Incidence in Tajikistan

Foreign Aid, in the case of Tajikistan, nurtures corruption among the government funding as they buy the idea of cheap funding. The increase in number of foreign donors can be seen significant as seen on the Foreign Aid Reports (2002-2006). The statistics shows that from 2003, there are 442 projects in all sectors through the combined efforts of foreign aides, and it increased to 725 active projects as of 2006. (Foreign Aid Reports, 2002-2009) Therefore, it shows positive impact to the different sectors in Tajikistan and so it is possible for it to reduce poverty.
Though it does not directly impact the number of war or conflict incidences in Tajikistan, the increase in foreign aid fail to minimize the occurrence of war affecting the country. This has been one of the reasons why foreign aid should be fragmented because as the interested countries continue to court the government of Tajikistan, it worsens the conflict between them, further affecting the country negatively. (Aminjanov, Kholmatov and Kataev, 2009) Again, as mentioned earlier, two of the countries interested into getting the country of Tajikistan are the Russian Federation and India. Other countries are those who have been part of the historical Civil War way back in 1992.

Conclusion

Foreign aid is what countries need in order to recover at a shorter time from any damages brought about by different occurrences. These occurrences may be inevitable such as disasters and other natural phenomena, but there are also occurrences that are manmade such as wars and conflicts.
Tajikistan has been one of venues of conflicts between nations with opposing perspectives. It may be a conflict between Russia and India, or Iran, Iraq or any other countries who are gaining power and money from wars. Other than being a place between those hotheaded countries, Tajikistan has rich natural resources that are not yet exploited and so many countries show its interest to it. With such weak and improper government, these countries who show interest to Tajikistan courts the country through sending help and donations and the worse is that the government of Tajikistan takes all the aids for granted.
Taking the foreign aids for granted will never be a sign of development. As the government takes the foreign aids in this manner, groups of people realize that foreign aids should then be fragmented as the country has been starting to depend on that and not on the actions of the government. Tajiks recognize how the donations help them but having poor government makes the Tajiks feel like they are the poorest of the poor. Therefore, they would want to improve their government first without any or with minimal foreign aid so the country could be somehow independent and will be able to stand on its own.
The foreign aid fragmentation, however, does not mean that they do no longer want to receive help and interventions from other countries. The only thing that the Tajikistan people would want to happen is to improve their government, lessen the corruption and in that way, national progress will be attained. To them, it is time to stop letting other countries rule them. To them, it is time for the government of Tajikistan to prove their worth and that they are worthy of trust and power.

References

Aminjanov, R., Kholmatov, M., &Kataev, F. (2009) “Case Study on Aid Effectiveness in Tajikistan” Brookings: Wolfensohn Center for Development.
Asia Report N’162. (2009) “Tajikistan: On the Road to Failure: Executive Summary and Recommendations.” International Crisis Group: The Reference
Coleman, P. (2009) "Cost of the War," World War II Resource Guide (Gardena, California: The American War Library)
Gavrilis, G. (2009) “The Tajik Solution: A Model of Fixing Tajikistan” (University of Texas: Department of Government)
Sapporo, M. (2004) “Civil War in Tajikistan and Post-Conflict Rehabilitation.” Hokkaido University: Center of Slavik Researches