Another New Introduction…

My name is Heather Winn, and like Justine, I will be working on the blog for the next few months. I am a junior at the College of William and Mary, double majoring in the Government and History Departments. Over the summer I worked at the Institute for Theory and Practice of International Relations on the Project-Level Aid (PLAID) and Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) projects. The former is a database which codes international development projects and compiles them into a comprehensive database covering all bilateral and multilateral projects since 1973. PLAID’s ultimate goals are to increase communication between project donors, promote accountability, and foster better allocation decisions in the future. Members of the Institute recently published a book using the PLAID database titled, Greening Aid? Understanding the Environmental Impact of Development Assistance. The TRIP project is two-fold; it includes a database of all International Relations articles and also does a biennial survey of IR scholars. The survey has a large range of questions, including ones about the discipline but also about current events and foreign policy decisions. During my time at CSIS, I will be contributing to the U.S/Pakistani relations project. I am excited to begin blogging and encourage you to check out the various PCR Publications.