Daniel E. Esser

Daniel E. Esser is associate professor at American University in Washington, DC and associate researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) in Bonn, Germany. His scholarship centers on the political economy of foreign aid, the politics of legitimacy, and international interventions in fragile settings. His regional focus lies on South Asia, in particular Afghanistan and Pakistan. A former UN staff member, he has led externally funded research in Central America, Mexico, and Sierra Leone and has conducted evaluations for multilateral and bilateral agencies such as the OECD, DFID, and Germany’s GIZ.