Niels Hahn is studying for a Ph D at SOAS, the prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies which is part of London University.
This choice is one of the things the Anglo-Danish Society's scholarship programme is about ... offering unique study opportunities which are simply not available in the other country.
From his beginnings as a construction architect Niels took his practical skills to Africa where he started out building health clinics for Medecins Sans Frontieres. He was in Monrovia at the height of the civil conflict in Liberia ... and now, having worked in Darfur, Somalia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, how to rebuild after conflict is the focus of his Ph D.
Report:
I
would like first of all to thank the Anglo-Danish Society for awarding a
scholarship of GBP 2000 as support to my PhD research in the academic year 2008-09.
In
this period I have completed a comprehensive field research in Liberia, where I
have previous worked during some periods of the war. I have followed the
political and economic development of the country since 2002, however it is
during the last eight months that I have got the most substantial data,
pertinent to my research.
My
research is focusing on the contemporary post conflict reconstruction processes
with a historical perspective. Liberia was an American colony from 1822 till
1847, and my research has in the past year increasingly been directed towards a
sharper focus on American imperialism and the role of the American Colonisation
Society that was established in 1816, with the aim of establishing Liberia.
With
special focus on the 1970s, it has appeared that the industrialisation process
in Liberia collapsed after the military coup in 1980, where President Tolbert
and thirteen ministers were murdered. According to a number of testimonies at
the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) this coup was instigated
by the CIA, because Tolbert’s administration was in a process of
industrialising Liberia with assistance from the USSR and China.
This
makes Liberia an outstanding case for the argument that the international
development agenda and foreign aid have more to do with political and economic
interests than altruism. A number of scholars at SOAS have in the past decades
criticised the World Bank and the IMF for imposing free market policies on
African countries, which are direct opposites of the development strategies
applied by the successful industrialised countries.
The
main argument is that the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) of the 1980s,
and the contemporary Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) impedes
industrialisation taking place in African countries. The argument is based on the
German economist Frederic List, who in the mid-19th century criticised Britain
for preaching free trade to other countries, while having achieved its own
economic supremacy through extensive state intervention, high tariffs and
significant subsidies.
My
field research underpins this argument, which at many universities is
considered as controversial. SOAS is a leading institution in this form of
critical research, and I have received and outstanding guidance and support,
which would be difficult to get elsewhere.
During
my field research I have collected more then ten thousand pages of
documentation in form of government documents, rare books, reports, documents
from the national archives, presidential papers, testimonies from the TRC,
etc,. In the same period I have interviewed more than 140 people, in order to
get first hand information. My informants include people such as Liberian
scholars, former child solders, ex-combatants, former commanding generals,
military advisors and political leaders from most factions of the armed
conflicts. Furthermore, I interviewed a number of former ministers and former
heads of states, as well as current ministers and the head of state.
I
now have a unique access to information and contact to a number of key people
in Liberia. In the coming years I expect to contribute to the academic and
public debate in Denmark and the UK, as well as in Liberia.
Based
on my research, the TRC in Liberia has asked me to write some recommendations
to be submitted to the government. These recommendations are currently being
discussed and considered in Liberia and will soon be published internationally.
Once
more I would like to say thank you for the economic support, which has been a
great help for my studies.
