The United States is not alone in reducing the footprint of its development agencies, shifting budgets from aid to defense, pulling back on security commitments, and reconsidering participation in multilateral venues. These trends raise critical questions about whether, when, how, and why countries choose to cooperate on global public goods, from economic development and environmental protection to shared security. In this forum, Dr. Susanna Campbell of American University’s School of International Service and the Research on International Policy Implementation Lab reflects on how countries might architect a renewed consensus around the future of international development cooperation and security alliances even as geopolitical tensions rise.
About the Speaker
Susanna P. Campbell is Provost Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Policy and Global Security, School of International Service (SIS), and Director of the Research on International Policy Implementation Lab (RIPIL) at American University. Her research examines research-to-policy translation, as well as interactions between international and domestic actors in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, addressing debates in the statebuilding, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, international aid, global governance, and foreign policy literatures. She uses mixed-method research designs and has conducted extensive fieldwork in conflict-affected countries, including Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, Sudan, South Sudan, and East Timor. Her research has been supported by awards from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the US National Science Foundation, Humanity United, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Swiss Network for International Studies, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the Swedish and Dutch governments, and the United Nations.
Campbell’s first book, Global Governance and Local Peace (Cambridge University Press, 2018), argues that because global governance actors are accountable to external stakeholders, seemingly “bad behavior” by country-based staff is necessary for local peacebuilding performance. It was shortlisted for the 2020 Conflict Research Society Book of the Year Prize and featured as one of the 2018 top picks for engaged scholarship by Political Violence @ a Glance. She is finishing a co-authored second book, Aid in Conflict, that explains how and why aid donors engage differently with war-torn countries. Her work has also been published or is forthcoming with American Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, Columbia University Press, Foreign Affairs, International Studies Review, International Peacekeeping, Journal of Global Security Studies, Journal of Politics, Oxford University Press, Political Research Quarterly, Review of International Organizations, among others.
Prior to graduate school, Dr. Campbell worked for the United Nations, International Crisis Group, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She received her PhD from Tufts University and was a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies and The Graduate Institute in Geneva. Her PhD research was supported by a USIP Peace Scholar Fellowship and a Tufts Provost Fellowship. In 2018, she received AU’s School of International Service Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award and, in 2021, the Outstanding Contribution to Fostering Collaborative
Scholarship award. In 2023 she was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and, in 2024, was awarded the Provost Associate Professor title by American University’s Provost.
Her scholarship has had an impact on the policies of the United Nations, International Non-Governmental Organizations, private foundations, and governments.