What drives support for foreign aid? Drawing on multidisciplinary research, we argue that international status is a powerful yet neglected factor driving public opinion toward aid. Using an original survey experiment in the U.S., we show that the more Americans value their country’s international standing, the more they support the provision of foreign aid. Observationally, respondents are more supportive of aid the higher their reported need for national status—whose substantive impact is comparable to that of important factors traditionally considered in foreign aid research.

Adam Dean is an Associate Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. He received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, his MSc from the London School of Economics, and his PhD from the University of Chicago.

His research focuses on the political economy of international trade, labour politics, and American Political Development. He teaches courses on
International Relations and International Political Economy. From 2014 to 2017 he taught at Middlebury College.

Professor Zhao will draw on his new book, The Dragon Roars Back: Transformational Leaders and Dynamics of Chinese Foreign Policy, to trace the dramatic shifts in China’s foreign policy since its founding in 1949 and the key roles played by Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping. Each of these transformational leaders reshaped foreign policy to better fit their aims for China. His presentation will focus on Xi Jinping’s power concentration and its implications for Chinese foreign policy.

VITTORIO EMANUELE PARSI is professor of "International Relations" in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. He is the director of ASERI (Graduate School of Economics and International Relations) and is a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics of the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) in Lugano.

This talk will focus on the policy, ideology and politics of Xi Jinping, State President and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and China’s 'ruler for life'. Through comparisons with former CCP leaders, including Deng Xiaoping, Dr Lam will assess whether, having abandoned many of the key precepts of the Era of Reform and the Open Door, the conservative supreme leader’s restitution of Maoist standards might enable China to sustain economic growth and project hard and soft power worldwide.