Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe

I have worked in the former USSR part time for 4 years now, and spent a lot of time there. I have become intimately familiar with what has transpired and the situation. I have read a great deal, Russian history and much scholarly work on USSR and post. Frankly, the latter is almost 100% scholarly dreck, suitable for enriching lawns. Nobody else has captured the essence of what has happened in the aftermath of the breakup of the USSR as well. I could add to it, for instance, the social difficulty of suddenly inverting the Marxist value system is a huge problem. Russia is trying to walk through the looking glass. Other authors should build on Janine's work. Basically, she documents an outrage of foriegn policy and the horrible idiocy of (mostly) well meaning intellectuals and academics. Read this book thoroughly. If you do, it will change your mind. I watch and seethe as the same game continues today. Five star hotels get built which house the "5-Star" aid class of contractors sometimes sincerely trying to help, far too often coldly pretending with utter cynicism, and much too frequently collaborating with local people to rip off millions. What Janine does not discuss, and should be written about by those who build on this seminal work, is the way that the ripoff game works. Billions get stolen, by heads of nations, by contractors who start banks, by so many. The legal system cannot stop it because there is no structure of law that can create a venue for prosecution of people who pull this off in places where it is done in collaboration. Janine doesn't talk about the "warlord game" by which thugs enrich themselves either. I will not name names here, though I could. I could go on, but I won't. Bottom line - read this book. Every American should start to understand how this works. Others should follow this courageous woman. The American people should get mad and get changes made, and most of all, travel - get out there, lend a hand to people out there with business opportunities, and find out what is being done by jerks in our name.

In the literature on the subject, Janine R. Wedel's researcj stands as a fine example of scientific honesty. It gives one hope that social science is possible beyond ideology, capitalistic or otherwise.

Hello Janine:I have been living in Belarus for the past five years, working with NGOs, and assisting with the development of the Third Sector.I was home in December and through the fog of my jet lag heard a TV commentator talk about your book 'Collision and Collusion.' Almost literally, I rushed out to buy it. I was told it was a new book and not in the bookstore yet. I urged them to order it for me quickly as I was returning to Belarus in January. They were successful, and I left for Minsk with your book in my carry-on luggage.There aren't words to describe how your book affected me. Until I read it, I thought I was going crazy. The book confirmed that the inconsistencies in foreign assistance that I had been observing for five years were real and someone had actually documented them. Knowing that others had made this observation relieved much of the frustration I was feeling. Since then, I have been recommending Collision and Collusion to anyone I know who is working in Eastern Europe and the NIS. It is better than a therapist.I am pleased that you have brought this situation to the world's attention. It saddens me to know that many of our foreign assistance dollars are being lost---first, for the American taxpayer and second, for the needy recipient. Perhaps, your efforts will encourage decision-makers to rectify this situation. Warmest Regards, C.M. Wilde

It seems this book is a progress report. It's great value is diminshed by two factors. 1) shouldn't there be a Congrressional investigation at least? Are the Harvard sophomores going to get away with their mischief? and 2) Wedel needs a collaborator who knows the difference between trade and liquidity . Anthropologists, perhaps, cannot see the big picture; wordiness spoils the effect of this serious and important study. Needs work, but deserves a prize.

Collision and Collusion, the result of seven years of investigation and 1,750 interviews, is a brilliantly devastating dissection of the Bush and Clinton administrations' approach to economic reform in the former Soviet empire. While I don't share all of author Janine R. Wedel's assumptions and conclusions, I must say it's the most careful and incisive work yet on the cronyism and corruption in U.S. economic "aid" to emerging democracies. J. Michael Waller, Ph.D., Annenberg Professor of International Communication, Institute of World Politics, Washington, D.C. Executive Editor, Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization