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Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies

African Studies Program

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  • William Decourt

William Decourt

Decourt is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science. His dissertation explores the political economy of climate change adaptation, focusing on cases in East and Southern Africa. Specifically, he explores the political motivations and strategies executive leaders in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Rwanda use to implement climate adaptation policies that coincide with state-level economic development planning. A key component of his research explores how international lending shapes this policy push in Africa by assessing the roles played by China's overseas official development finance (ODF), including from the Belt-and-Road and Global Development initiatives (BRI and GDI).

He has received FLAS and Fulbright funding to pursue this work and to learn Swahili, both at IU and in Kenya. During graduate school, he also assists an NSF-funded collaborative research project exploring the political impacts of zoonotic disease outbreaks in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Prior to starting graduate school at Indiana University, he worked in Washington, DC, including roles in government (USDoS), consulting (the late Madeleine Albright's firm, ASG), and a think tank (CSIS). He is a Minnesota native, where he obtained a BA in Political Science and Music composition with a minor in Middle East Studies from Carleton College.

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