Background

Joseph Hanlon was born on June 15, 1941.

Education

Joseph Hanlon earned a bachelor's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Doctor of Philosophy in physics from Tufts University.

Career

Joseph Hanlon was the correspondent in Mozambique for the British Broadcasting Corporation and the London Guardian from 1979 through 1984. More detailed research and book writing followed as he moved into development studies. Other projects included serving as coordinator of the Commonwealth Independent Expert Study on Sanctions Against Apartheid South Africa (1989-1990) and Policy Advisor for the Jubilee 2000 campaign to cancel developing country debt (1998-2000). Joseph developed the concept of "illegitimate debt" - that is, international loans that are odious or otherwise unacceptable and thus should not be repaid and are the liability of the lender, not the borrower. Based in part on his research, this concept was adopted by the Norwegian government in 2006. He became a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics in 2008, linked then to the Crisis States Research Centre. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Open University and Honorary Research Fellow in the school of environment and development of the University of Manchester.

His research interests include Mozambique, Bangladesh climate change, and small-scale commercial farming in Africa. Half of his work is about Mozambique. He has written seven books on Mozambique and has reported on all of Mozambique's multi-party elections. He curates a website with Mozambique election data since 1999 to encourage collaborative research. Joseph Hanlon has been the editor of the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin since 1992.

The other half of his work has been more varied, including civil wars, cash transfers (child benefit, non-contributory pension, etc.), and Zimbabwe's land reform. He has written many books including Mozambique: Who Calls the Shots (1991) and South Africa: The Sanctions Report (1989). He has also co-authored many books including Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land (2013), Just Give Money to the Poor (2010), and Civil War, Civil Peace (2005).

In his book Mozambique: Who Calls the Shots?, Joseph Hanlon reported that Mozambique is the world's poorest, hungriest, most indebted, most aid-dependent country, according to the World Bank's World Development Report of 1990. The book explains how this happened and how the process of decolonization began. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are specifically indicted as the principal cause of the poverty and indebtedness of the region.

In Apartheid's Second Front, Hanlon argues that the South African government ruthlessly and effectively used its military and economic superiority to repress any resistance to apartheid in the region. He shows that South Africa, along with international corporations based in South Africa, has control over virtually all regional transport, oil, and electricity. Hanlon also discusses the roles of the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and West Germany as South Africa's largest trading partners.

Hanlon's Mozambique and the Great Flood of 2000 documents the flood that made international headlines and provoked a huge international relief effort. Hanlon and Frances Christie, who co-authored the book, examine the natural and man-made causes of the flood and the nature of the relief work that followed.

Achievements

• Joseph has been writing about Mozambique since 1978 and is now the most cited social science academic on that country. His 2010 book Just Give Money to the Poor on cash transfers was on the Guardian 2011 list of "Development studies: Key first-year reads" and has been influential in changing the view the poor countries could not afford social protection.

Works

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  • Just Give Money to the Poor: The Development Revolution from the Global South

    (Team authored by foremost scholars in the development fie...)

    2010
  • Peace Without Profit: How the IMF Blocks Rebuilding in Mozambique

    (This book argues that following the dictates of the IMF/W...)

    1996
  • Beggar Your Neighbors: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa

    (Joseph Hanlon pieces together the details of South Africa...)

    1986
  • Mozambique and the Great Flood of 2000

    (Frances Christie and Joseph Hanlon examine the causes (bo...)

    2001
  • Do Bicycles Equal Development in Mozambique?

    (Is Mozambique an African success story? It has 7 percent ...)

    2008
  • Zimbabwe Takes Back Its Land

    (The news from Zimbabwe is usually unremittingly bleak. Pe...)

    2013
  • Mozambique: The revolution under fire 1984
  • Apartheid's Second Front: South Africa's War Against Its Neighbours 1986
  • Mozambique: Who Calls the Shots? 1991
  • Civil War, Civil Peace 2006

Politics

Throughout his career, Joseph Hanlon has fought against apartheid with writings that are often carefully documented indictments of the West's destabilization of Third-World countries as punishment for their experiments in socialist governments. According to Hanlon, this has taken the form of aid packages with so many conditions that it is de facto recolonization.