Sarah Gross

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Peace and Conflict Studies

Abstract

In recent years, policymakers and scholars have increasingly debated the relationship between security and development. National and global policymaking currently reflect consensus that the relationship between security and development exists and is significant, but various questions remain as to how the “security-development nexus” is understood and employed. Also unexplored is the extent to which United States policymakers can, or should, address this security-development nexus and incorporate it into foreign policy. I will argue that U.S. foreign policy should embrace the relationship between security and development. Using an interdisciplinary approach that draws from the fields of history, political economy, international relations, and peace studies, I intend to examine the various perspectives on the security-development nexus and delineate the various arguments until I reach my own conclusion regarding the role of the security-development nexus in policymaking. This conclusion will be informed by analysis of a specific case study. After addressing the various arguments concerning the security-development nexus and placing the nexus within the context of a case study to better understand its dynamics, I will conclude with some thoughts on the following: relationship between peace and development, the implications of this relationship for U.S. policymaking, and what should be done by whom and for whom in the name of a security-development nexus, especially in the context of the case study.

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