The Centre for European Studies reached out to Ida Welén by email to ask her about the process of writing her thesis.
Congratulations on the CFE honorary mention! What are you up to right now?
Thank you! Right now I am spending my last week interning at the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) in Stockholm. I have been at the FBA Research Unit since September 2024. I am also preparing to move to Brussels to proceed with another traineeship at the Stockholm Region EU Office during the spring semester. I am very excited for this!
You have written about the geopolitics of aid in the EU – the influence of strategic interests on aid flows. How did you come up with this topic?
I wrote my “high school thesis” (gymnasiearbete) on the EU's foreign aid and I was interested in further exploring the underlying motives for aid distribution. I also wanted to know more about the EU:s relation to its Eastern European neighbors and the European Neighbourhood Policy. Starting from these two main topics, I dived deeper into the research on foreign aid and started to think about how I could combine these research areas. Could aid distribution tell me something about the EU states’ relations to the Eastern Neighbourhood?
You performed a quantitative statistical analysis to test what influence aid flows. How was it to work with this method?
It was very interesting. I have worked with quantitative methods and different statistical programmes before, and I was excited to explore if I could draw any significant conclusions using this method. However, I did encounter a few challenges on the way. The main challenge was that I found it very difficult to quantify such indicators as political relations or security interests. What measures and what data is actually representing what I am trying to analyze? And there is also a difficulty in finding accurate data sources. Where to look and what to choose? But overall, I learned a lot and I would like to continue developing skills in quantitative analysis. It was a fun process.
Tell me about one time when you felt challenged in the writing process.
Apart from the struggles with data collection, I think the most challenging part was writing the discussion. I thought a lot about the generalizability of my results. Even though my aim was to analyze the European area, could my conclusions also be applied in other situations? It was also challenging to choose what to discuss, as I found multiple aspects interesting. I had to shorten my text a lot and exclude some parts. I guess this is a common problem with writing theses, but I had never encountered a situation quite like this – so I was surprised and a bit overwhelmed. Still, I am happy with how it turned out in the end.
What is your biggest takeaway from writing this thesis?
I think my biggest takeaway is a larger understanding of the complexity of the European area. I now only looked at one perspective through aid allocation, but I would like to incorporate other perspectives as well. Interactions, for example by trade or aid flows, are such complex relations that need broader analyzes. This is one delimitation of my thesis results. But I gained many insights from this process and I really want to learn and analyze this topic more.
What are your plans ahead?
After my traineeship at the Stockholm Region EU Office this spring, I will start a master’s programme in the fall. However, I do not know what university I will end up at yet! I hope to be able to focus more in depth on European affairs during my master's and continue on this path for my master’s thesis, and hopefully also for my future career.
Ida Welén received the award with the following motivation from the jury: "Ida Welén's bachelor’s thesis 'Strategic Altruism: Analyzing Development Aid for Donor Strategic Objectives. A Quantitative Analysis of the Strategic Interests Influencing European Aid Flows' contributes to a deeper understanding of the geopolitics of aid from the perspective of individual donor countries within the EU providing bilateral aid. It focuses on bilateral development efforts from the EU Member States towards the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. On the basis of a quantitative statistical analysis, Ida discusses several hypotheses and emphasizes important factors such as national security interests, increased trade relations between donor states and EaP states, closer geographic proximity to EaP states and right-wing influence within the parliaments of donor states. The analysis is highly impressive and sophisticated, especially being at the bachelor level, and is firmly grounded in realist International Relations through ‘Donor-Interest’ models. The findings demonstrate the internal foreign policy divides of the EU, questioning a united approach to the European Neighbourhood Policy. Ida’s thesis convincingly emphasises an issue of great concern in development aid policy."
Click here to read Ida Welén's thesis.
Are you curious about the winner of the CFE best thesis award?