I have attempted to begin my research with a narrow focus in the hopes of analyzing the successes/failures of specific programs.
MBJ I think your study will be helpful to the community and wish you the best. We have had several emotional debates in the SWJ concil on this topic, so if I can find them I'll send you a link or two.

I pasted your comment above to point out one the biggest challenges in your study, and that is identifying the metrics to determine if the projects have been successful our not. I think you'll need data from a significant period of time to accurately determine if "development" versus humanitarian assistance (restoring essential services) was successful.

Unfortunately, most U.S. government led (to include the military) development efforts are poorly executed and the classic "The Ugly American" is as true today as it was when it was written. Our economic development efforts with few examples are largely Kodak moments for the media, then we scurry back to our enclaves. This is true for the State Department and the Military. There have been exceptions to the rule, but the rule is pretty darned consistent.

In a combat zone where we just occupied a country, CERP funds are and were essential to restore essential services, but that isn't development.

What is development? How do you determine if there was development? How do you determine if our assistance was instrumental in any way in facilitating the development?

Instead of looking at Iraq (pardon my negativism, but the friends of Chenny squandered billions of dollars with limited return on investment, so it doesn't prove that development efforts can or can't work, they were just poorly executed there), take a look at what we did at the end of WWII, at the end of the Korean conflict, and what we're doing now in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, Bangladesh, Philippines, etc. to get a wider view where you may be able to identify some fairly constant variables that contributed to success or failure. We already know we haven't done well in the main two current fights, but I think we have made progress elsewhere.