SWJ–El Centro Book Review – Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti

Jake Johnston, Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2024. [ISBN: 1250284678, Paperback, 384 pages]

Jake Johnston is a senior research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, DC, and has been the leading writer for the center’s Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watchwebsite since February 2010, just weeks after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, the Boston Review, Truthout, The Intercept, on ABC News, and elsewhere. He grew up in Portland, Maine, lives in Washington, DC, and has an MA in writing from Johns Hopkins University.

Johnston’s 2024 work Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti is the amalgamation of his experience, research, due-diligence and care of monitoring Haitian relief and aid beginning from the 2010 earthquake and ends with the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse in 2021. Johnston puts forth the idea of the “Aid State,” rather than a failed state, to describe the current condition of Haiti:

“In the twenty-three years since the end of the dictatorship in Haiti, the international community had spent $8 billion pursuing the same. Two decades into this nation-building experiment, all that the international community had to show for their effort was the evisceration of the Haitian state, as the government’s absence after the quake had demonstrated. What the response to the earthquake revealed, however, was that this was no accident. Donors hadn’t helped build a modern Haitian state; what they had created was its replacement, the Aid State.”(pp. 38-39)

Hence, the difference between a failed state and an aid state, per the author, is that a failed state must be given the chance to fail whereas Haiti has been kept intentionally and indefinitely crippled for centuries, dependent entirely on and at the complete mercy of international stakeholders using humanitarian crises to further their own interests at the expense of the Haitian community.

Structure of the Book

Johnston reveals the Aid State concept throughout the book with a prologue, twenty-nine chapters, an epilogue, acknowledgments, cited notes, and an index.  A detailed prologue, chapter, and epilogue breakdown of the work is as follows:

• Prologue: Basic concepts of the Aid State are introduced with parallels to the War in Afghanistan as two aid-dependent states.
• Chapter 1. The “Compassionate Invasion”: Details the hours and minutes beginning with the 2010 Haiti earthquake and leading up to the US response to Haiti calling for aid, which was met by putting US security interests first above relief aid for Haitians.
• Chapter 2. The Fear: Explores another side of US security interests, mainly the concept of “elite panic,” coined by Rebecca Solnit, and how the absence of authority can lead to a Haitian revolution.
• Chapter 3. The Blue Helmets: Focuses on the history of UN stabilization efforts in Haiti and how the UN “Blue Helmets” forces were used against Haitian citizens for nefarious purposes.
• Chapter 4. The Opportunity: Delves into the history of the opportunistic exploitation of Haiti, from the early twentieth century up to and including the 2010 earthquake incident.
• Chapter 5. The Plan: Explains the history and repercussions of the “Towards a New Future in Haiti” reconstruction plan, the Collier Report, and the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission which followed the 2010 earthquake incident.
• Chapter 6. The Aid-Industrial Complex: Reveals how aid funding is used to fuel non-government organizations (NGOs) and non-profit organizations by delivering aid to Haiti that forces the population to further rely on these organizations and for sustainment via companies such as ChemTronics International and Monsanto.
• Chapter 7. The Transition Initiative: Further exacerbates the aid funding issue introduced in the previous chapter by showcasing historical events where aid was used to manipulate the recipient in order to achieve objectives that the funding state wishes to acquire such as overthrowing the Haitian government in 2004 and awarding contracts to NGOs with questionable motives.
• Chapter 8. The Dispensable Man: Puts the spotlight on René Préval, who played off political powers and events to benefit Haiti and himself, both leading up to the 2010 earthquake and during its aftermath.
• Chapter 9. The Electoral Carnival: Unveils the reach of foreign power into the Haitian electoral system during 2010.
• Chapter 10. The Statistical Coup: A follow-on to the previous chapter. After the failure of receiving the election results that were planned, foreign powers call into question the results and manipulate the statistics of voter turnout.
• Chapter 11. The Commission: Introduces the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission, led by the Clintons, to bring about Haiti’s restoration and how the actions of the Commission worked against restoring Haiti.
• Chapter 12. The Slogan: The narrative used by the newly elected President Martelly for the benefit of foreign powers in 2011. The case of the re-introduction of an exploited and export-based economy of Haiti is also made.
• Chapter 13. The Musician and his Band: Details the life and times of Michel Martelly, including questionable actions, leading up to his win for presidency in 2011.
• Chapter 14. The Ghosts of the Past: Describes the effects in Haiti by the then new President Martelly and the return of Jean-Claude Duvalier to the country.
• Chapter 15. The Promised Land: Unveils the history of “Canaan”, a section of land near Titanyen in Haiti, that was supposed to have homes, factories, and other infrastructure built for the citizens supplied by donated aid.
• Chapter 16. The Battle for Reform: Explores the relationship between the aid-state complex and those using donation for Haiti to instead fund themselves along with the struggle to reform these relationships into something more accountable and beneficial for Haiti.
• Chapter 17. The Diplomat’s Job: Explains the true role of a “diplomat’s job” in Haiti, using the 2015 Haiti election cycle with US Ambassador Pamela White as an example, and shows how the failure of the Haitian parliament allowed Martelly to rule by decree.
• Chapter 18. The Party: Furthering the timeline to a few days after the Haitian Parliament expired in 2015, tells the story of how Martelly’s PHTK rose and became the most funded and organized political party in the country.
• Chapter 19. The Legal Bandits: A major chapter that introduces the history and relationship between Haiti and the drug trade, with connections to Martelly’s PHTK political party.
• Chapter 20. The Electoral Test: More criminal actions are unveiled in this chapter as the ability for Haitians to vote in 2015 are waylaid because of the systematic destroying of votes, voting booths, and other infrastructure as a test against the electoral system.
• Chapter 21. The Most Votes Money Can Buy: Delves into the corrupt process of selling “mandataire” voter cards prior to the 2015 Haiti election and how this process stacked the deck in favor of the Haitian elite and international parties.
• Chapter 22. The Transition: After the disaster of the 2015 Haiti election, a transition of power from Martelly to a new parliament and interim president Jocelerme Privert is configured with the return of the Lavalas.
• Chapter 23. The Banana Man: Introduces Jovenel Moïse as the upcoming candidate backed by Martelly through the 2016 Hurricane Matthew to his presidency and the disruption to the agricultural cycle of Haiti as a result.
• Chapter 24. The Search for Life: The system of exploitation in Haiti is further explored by examining the depriving of Haitian farmers of their income, exploitation of low wages in the manufacturing sector, the struggle for its citizens to migrate from Haiti, and the extraction of wealth from Haitian migrants who send remittances back home to their families.
• Chapter 25. The $80,000 House: Explains the failure of USAID to build 15,000 homes in the Caracol-EKAM village in northern Haiti that ended up in a multi-million-dollar disaster due to contractors embezzling aid funds.
• Chapter 26. The Apology: Reveals the story behind the UN’s role in spreading cholera to Haiti, a disease which never existed in the country previously to the UN occupation, as well as other atrocities.
• Chapter 27. The Tweet: Shows the corruption of the relationship between PetroCaribe and the Haitian government boiling over when the “#PetroCaribeChallenge” tweet was posted in August 2018.
• Chapter 28. The Mercenaries: Details the events of security contractors’ involvement in Haitian politics during 2019, leading up to the schism between the Haitian National Police and the Aid State and the creation of criminal groups led by former police officers such as Jimmy Cherezier.
• Chapter 29. The Ongoing Revolution: Reflects on the overall history of revolution in Haiti under the lens of the 2019 political climate and the impacts of the Aid State.
• Epilogue. The Assassination: Details the events of the assassination of Jovenel Moïse as well as other attempts to remove Moïse from his presidency.

Analysis of the Book

Aid State presents a powerful description of the aid-industrial complex that has firmly gripped Haiti. The corruption caused by foreign international stakeholders, criminals, and the political elite of Haiti mix to form the current Haitian crisis plagued by gang driven criminal insurgency and elite (plutocratic) interests. The book leans more towards journalistic ease of readability, but with all the benefits of a scholarly publication. Each chapter of the book possesses notes that link to news articles, official government reports, court cases and many other resources which amount to more than forty pages. Three themes tell the story of the aid-industrial complex:

The foundation of the criminal insurgency (Prologue, Chapters 1-6): The aid-industrial complex is shown to function less as a true support system and more as a system to maintain a controlled instability that doesn’t benefit the Haitian community. Foreign military responses to the 2010 earthquake (Ch. 1), elite panic over Haitian autonomy (Ch. 2), UN abuses (Ch. 3), and economic exploitation (Chs. 4–6) show how international players created the vacuum for criminal insurgents by undermining governance and hollowing out institutions.

The criminalization of governance (Chapters 7-22): These chapters trace how aid funding was used to co-opt elections (Chs. 9–10), install compliant leadership (Chs. 12–13) and suppress reform (Ch. 16). The intervention of foreign diplomats (Ch. 17) and the creation of a ruling elite party (Ch. 18) reveal how power transitioned into criminalized political networks. The pivotal Chapter 19, “The Legal Bandits,” directly links the PHTK party and Martelly to the drug trade, positioning the state as a hub for criminal enterprise.

The escalation of criminal insurgency (Chapters 23-29): As state institutions degrade, criminal insurgents operate both outside and within state mechanisms, reflecting a mafia-like co-option of governance and, culminating in the epilogue, track the rise of Jimmy Chérizier (Ch. 28) and similar figures. These actors, once part of the state apparatus (police, military), now lead criminal insurgencies with paramilitary structures. Finally, The PetroCaribe scandal (Ch. 27) and the assassination of Jovenel Moïse (epilogue) underscore a shift whereby politics in Haiti become increasingly indistinguishable from organized crime and insurgency, with violence as a governing tool.

Conclusion

Johnston’s case for the Aid State of Haiti and the idea of “aid industrial complex” is an original, profound, and most importantly accurate description of what is and has been occurring for decades. He captures the culture, history, politics, international security, and criminality of the Aid State complex of Haiti in a single book. Aid State sets the gold standard for understanding the underlying history and politics of Haiti if one possesses a serious interest in learning the facts surrounding the present criminal insurgency plaguing Haiti.

Further Reading

John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker, “Third Generation Gangs Strategic Note No. 41: Criminal Insurgency and ‘Revolution’ in Haiti?” Small Wars Journal, 2 July 2021, pp. 1–9, https://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/third-generation-gangs-strategic-note-no-41-criminal-insurgency-and-revolution-haiti

Jean-michel Newberg and Robert J. Bunker, “Third Generation Gangs Subject Bibliography No. 2: Haitian Gangs.” Small Wars Journal, 11 March 2025, pp. 1-19, https://smallwarsjournal.com/2025/03/11/third-generation-gangs-subject-bibliography-no-2-haitian-gangs/.