This book identifies the quality of domestic governance as the most important factor determining development outcomes in poor countries, and investigates in a series of case studies how external interventions affect this crucial development constraint. The interplay between the two dimensions has been discussed in the aid and development literature, but this study covers a much broader spectrum of interventions and seeks to provide a more comprehensive picture and understanding of the relationship. External interventions can emanate from individual countries or institutions or from multilateral institutions. The study includes interventions where the purpose is to deal with economic and social development and security problems. They analyse issues relating to the impact of ownership and conditionality in aid as well as peace-keeping interventions or other direct interventions relating to security. Many of the instances are not simple one-sided international interventions in the sense of one country interfering with the internal affairs of another. External influences affect domestic governance in many ways. This important new volume brings together an international group of scholars to investigate the impact of external interventions in a few closely related policy areas, namely economic, social policies, and security policy. Key questions that will be addressed are as follows: (1) How do external interventions in economic, social, and security areas affect domestic governance in developing countries? (2) What are the interactions between external interventions and domestic governance? (3) How can external agents advance domestic governance? The volume concludes with a discussion about implications for future aid and development policies.