Too Poor for Peace?: Global Poverty, Conflict, and Security in the 21st Century

Front Cover

In a world where boundaries and borders are blurred and seemingly distant threats can metastasize quickly, the battle against global poverty has become a fight of necessity—not simply because morality demands it, but because global security does as well. Just as poverty begets insecurity, the reverse is also true. Too Poor for Peace? explores this damaging pattern of mutual reinforcement in its many different facets, bringing the latest lessons and intellectual framework to bear in the search for vehicles to improve both economic conditions and physical security. “By bringing together a broad range of international expertise on the challenges of poverty, security, and development, Brainard and Chollet have given us a book as timely as it is insightful. The authors do more than define the problem—they offer concrete ideas for those who want to do something about it.” MOHAMED IBRAHIM, Founder, Celtel International “Too Poor for Peace translates cutting-edge research into practical solutions for the developing world. It is for everyone who is concerned with poverty and peace.” JAMES D. WOLFENSOHN, Chairman, Citigroup International Advisory Board, and former president of the World Bank “This book tackles one of the biggest challenges of our time: the povertyinsecurity nexus. Its focus on the role of leadership and the private sector to fight poverty and end conflict is particularly powerful and should influence the work of scholars and practitioners alike.” MARY ROBINSON, Executive director, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, and former president of Ireland LAEL BRAINARD is vice president and director of the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. Among her previous books are Security by Other Means: Foreign Assistance, Global Poverty, and American Leadership (Brookings, 2007) and The Other War: Global Poverty and the Millennium Challenge Account (Brookings, 2004). DEREK CHOLLET is a nonresident fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He is author of The Road to the Dayton Accords: A Study of American Statecraft (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). A Brookings Blum Roundtable Project Brookings Institution Press Washington, D.C. www.brookings.edu Cover photograph: © Benjamin Lowy/Corbis Cover by Sese-Paul Design BROOKINGS Brainard/Chollet Too Poor for Peace? Too Poor for Peace? 00-1375-3 fm 3/30/07 1:25 PM Page i 00-1375-3 fm 3/30/07 1:25 PM Page ii ...