SU Lebanon VF SCP banner

How International Aid Can Do More Harm Than Good: The Case of Lebanon

As Lebanon reckons with another round of crisis, what should the international community do? In this Strategic Update, Valentina Finckenstein traces three decades of wasted aid and elite entrenchment, as well as the evolution of development theory, to advance a new course of action that will not make the mistakes of the past.

Read the online edition:

How International Aid Can Do More Harm Than Good

Download the PDF:

How International Aid Can Do More Harm Than Good

Correction: An editorial error in a prior version incorrectly claimed that Lebanon received $170 billion in aid inflows. They were capital inflows.

About the author

Valentina Finckenstein is a Programme Manager and Research Associate at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Beirut, Lebanon. Her work focuses mainly on MENA security and geopolitics, resources and EU-MENA relations. Previously, she was a research associate for LSE IDEAS and worked for the Vice-President of the European Parliament Alexander Lambsdorff. She holds an MSc in International Relations from LSE.