One interesting facet of American foreign policy is foreign aid, money that they US government gives to the governments of other countries. This aid can have several intended purposes, ranging from military aid to aid designed to create economic growth in the recipient country. While the US does not spend a huge percentage of its budget on foreign aid (over 1%), it nonetheless accounts for $50 billion, no paltry sum.
So, considering that a cent out of every tax dollar the US federal government receives goes to foreign aid, it may be prudent to wonder why and how that money is spent. Foreign aid serves two primary purposes: 1. To aid and strengthen American allies (i.e. Israel) or 2. To attempt to influence less-than-friendly nations to become allies, or at least to promote democracy in those countries.
Yet, the question can be asked: is this aid really worth it? Particularly with regard to the second goal of foreign aid, is giving money to governments who are not our allies prudent or foolish? The answer is far from clear, and can vary from case to case. But a few cases do stand out in particular that seem to evidence that our foreign aid spending is not always done wisely.
One interesting study conducted by Forbes found that the two countries considered the most corrupt by the international Corruption Index (Somalia and Afghanistan), receive $168 million and $2.3 billion respectively. The article points out that given the corruption of these governments, it is very unlikely that this money reaches the poor and needy that it is designated for. Rather, this money goes directly to the coffers of the corrupt politicians (or in some cases, warlords might be a more accurate description).
The other case of interest in the foreign aid debate is Egypt, which after experiencing a revolution not all that long ago has since fallen under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, a fundamentalist group pushing Sharia Law in the country. There have been reports of the group rigging elections in their favor and enacting strict regulations on the country’s media, even jailing their political opposition. Yet, the United States recently sent a quarter of billion dollars to Egypt. Now, as I said earlier, it is not uncommon for the US to give money to foreign countries as a sort of impetus to get them to change. But this money had no strings attached. It wasn’t “free your political prisoners and we’ll give you the money.” It was simply, “well, here you go.”
This fact is nothing short of highly concerning. Considering the US’s budgetary shortfalls, we don’t really have money to be throwing around (one article notes that the quarter billion we gave Egypt would cover the next 25 years of White House tours). So, when we start handing out millions of dollars, we should only do so with a good reason. Funding an Islamic Fundamentalist, anti-democratic regime doesn’t really seem like a great reason, nor does funding the corrupt governments of Somalia and Afghanistan. That isn’t to say that all foreign aid is bad. But I certainly think that some of it is.