Theory and Politics of Foreign Aid in the United States

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 1,0, University of Wroclaw, language: English, abstract: This term paper deals with the question if development assistance can be seen as an effective response to global terrorism after the September 11 attacks. However, the main focus will be set on the foreign aid of the USA, since the direct political reactions after the terrorist attacks had a bigger impact than the ones of the European Union or other states, in spite of the terrorist attacks in London and Madrid. Furthermore, it is important to focus on a rather narrow and clear aspect in order to achieve a deepened discourse instead of a superficial catch-all debate, which could not be provided properly with the formal limitations of this paper anyway.

In order to answer the question, in the following chapter will be briefly described how US aid was provided before 9/11, including the most important countries and methods applied to achieve the goals. Afterwards the shift of perspective in foreign policy and the related aid allocation will be presented, while the increased effort and the outcomes will be portrayed. Finally, concluding remarks will summarize the findings and arguments of this essay.

The Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks against the United States of America on September 11th 2001 changed worldwide political dynamics and the perception of political challenges and issues in regions, in which mainly Muslims live. The symbolic attack of the extremists against the Western world opened the debate why such hatred developed and more important how the repetition of such events could be avoided in the future. While the Bush administration quickly and publicly decided to intervene militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to find the responsible ones behind the attacks, it has been concluded as well to work on the security of US citizens through development assistance.

Reconciliation, the promotion of democracy and the increase of the education level in regions, in which Muslim extremist were trained and radicalized have been perceived as key aspects of the war on terror, going beyond the military classic concept of war. Nevertheless, military forces have spent more than a decade in Afghanistan and left Iraq earlier with a poor administrative state. A possible connection between violence, attacks and humiliation and the present forces supposedly has been observed by the Muslim community after cases of torture by soldiers became public, which appears to be a contradiction to the noble goal of the promotion of peace, freedom and security.