In this introduction to the special issue, “Foreign Aid Withdrawals and Suspensions: Why, When and Are They Effective,” we both summarize the current state of the literature and outline a robust new agenda for studying aid suspensions and withdrawals. A common contribution of the papers in this special issue is that they emphasize that donors and aid-recipient states have more options available to them than previous literature has allowed and that it is the creative ways in which aid-recipient governments seek to discipline their donors that make the effective use of conditionality so challenging. In this introduction, we not only summarize what we know about aid suspensions and withdrawals but also begin to unpack the complex decision-making that underlies aid suspensions, providing a simplified decision tree that can guide future research. Overall, we emphasize that, far from being a niche issue, aid suspensions and withdrawals are a fundamental part of the political economy of foreign aid and that much more work is needed to understand how recipient governments make decisions about how to respond or not to respond to (threats of) aid suspensions and withdrawals and how donors factor such political calculations into their initial or subsequent decision-making. The article highlights both the challenges and the opportunities of unpacking the complex decision-making behind aid suspensions and withdrawals.

中文翻译：

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撤回和暂停外援：为何、何时以及是否有效？

在《外国援助撤回和暂停：为何、何时以及是否有效》特刊的介绍中，我们总结了文献的现状，并概述了研究援助暂停和撤回的强有力的新议程。本期特刊中的论文的一个共同贡献是，它们强调捐助者和受援国比以前的文献有更多的选择，这是受援国政府寻求约束捐助者的创造性方式。这使得有效利用条件性变得如此具有挑战性。在本引言中，我们不仅总结了我们对援助暂停和撤回的了解，而且还开始解析暂停援助背后的复杂决策，提供一个可以指导未来研究的简化决策树。总体而言，我们强调，暂停和撤回援助远不是一个小众问题，而是外援政治经济学的基本组成部分，需要做更多的工作来了解受援国政府如何做出回应或不回应的决定暂停和撤回援助（威胁）以及捐助者如何将此类政治考虑纳入其最初或后续决策。文章强调了解决暂停和撤回援助背后的复杂决策所面临的挑战和机遇。