Are We Helping?: Foreign Aid from the Realist Perspective

The topic of “giving aid” to another state conjures up a lot of different emotions in a first world, politically charged nation like the United States. Right now, you may be picturing American doctors and volunteers helping poverty stricken, malnourished children in small huts. Or maybe you only think about truckloads filled with trillions of dollars leaving our borders to go to a corrupt dictator. Both images may be somewhat accurate, but there is also another way to look at foreign aid. Who exactly are we “aiding” and why?

To try to answer this question, let’s look at some statistics.

In 1970, some of the wealthiest nations in the world signed a UN charter to give up .7% of their Gross National Income each year for Foreign Development (Foreign Aid). For the United States, this would translate into approximately $107 billion a year, and each year, the U.S., and almost every other nation involved in the agreement, fails to reach this goal of .7% (Gross National Income). Clearly, international cooperation to lift up those less fortunate is not a priority.

And neither is giving money to states that need it the most. In 2011-2012 FY, Togo had a GDP per capita of only $900. South Africa had a GDP per capita of $11,100 (Central Intelligence Agency). Yet, the United States appropriated $106,000 Foreign Assistance to Togo, and $574,266,000 to South Africa (ForeignAssistance). As much as nations like to paint the pictures of the doctors in third world countries helping poor sick children, most of the time that is not what is happening.

Each year, the United States appropriates between 1-2% of its budget to Foreign Assistance. In dollar amounts that is roughly $58 billion dollars a year (Wingfield).  It is important to recognize that there are many different types of “aid.” Foreign Assistance falls under the category of humanitarian or developmental aid, the kind necessary to help struggling nations “grow out of poverty” (Foreign Aid). Remember, we only give 1-2%. As of December 31, 2011, private companies and industries in the U.S. had invested a total of $4.314 trillion in stocks and NGO’s abroad, a number that had grown from $3.908 trillion the year before (Central Intelligence Agency). These numbers make the 1% of appropriated foreign aid seem miniscule, so why do we still give it? In a world of rapid industrialization, globalization, corporate investments and privatized aid, is a billion dollars here and there really making a difference in foreign nations? Are we really trying to make developing nations stronger?

A Realist might say no. In the game of world politics, the only player you worry about is yourself. From this perspective, foreign aid is not really about “helping” the small nations around us so that they can someday play at our level. Foreign aid is used more as a bargaining chip to balance power. States will give what they can where they need it most. It is the principle of survival and self help.

In fact, we give a lot of aid to our enemies and competitors. In 2012, $81,030,000 was appropriated to Russia, a growing power, the nation that vetoed action in Syria and has arms deals with Iran. Another $9,495,000 went to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, another leader not too fond of the U.S. (ForeignAssistance). But by giving money to these countries, the United States gains a sort of power over them. The United States gives more money to Israel than almost any other nation, $2,460,240,000 in 2012 alone. Yet we also give aid to Palestinians in the West Bank. In 2006, the United States suspended foreign assistance to the Gaza Strip until Hamas renounced its claims in the area. The humanitarian situation greatly worsened as a result (United States). Groups like the Palestinians are extremely reliant on aid from the U.S. whether they agree with us ideologically or not. Though we only provide a fraction of the funds to Palestine that we do to their enemies in Israel, the amount of dependency on these funds gives the United States the slight upper hand in the situation.

Looking back, this form of using aid as a weapon for our own interests is nothing new. The Reagan Doctrine allowed the United States to provide aid to guerrilla resistance groups in Soviet satellites to fight communism during the Cold War (Lagon). In a research journal on the subject, it was noted that, “The realist explanation of the Reagan Doctrine demonstrates how the international environment shapes the realm of the possible in American foreign-policy doctrines, revealing the context in which the United States can act” (Lagon). Based on this International Relations theory, a state will act any way it can to protect its status in any given international environment. The Reagan Doctrine is an example of a state trying to maintain power in the modern age, not with arms but with aid.

States no longer have to use only their own physical forces to protect themselves. In Realism it is not a question of if a state will survive, but how. Especially in this new age of globalization, there are many ways to survive. Giving aid is as much a symbolic show of influence as it is a strategic mode of protection for powerful nations like the United States. That is why we send billions of dollars overseas to our ideological opponents. It is not your stereotypical picture of foreign aid, or even the one that most governments want to project, but from the realist perspective, it is what is necessary to survive.

"Central Intelligence Agency." CIA. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2012.

            <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html>.

"Foreign Aid for Development Assistance." - Global Issues. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept.

            2012. <http://www.globalissues.org/article/35/foreign-aid-development-

            assistance>.

"Gross National Income in PPP Dollars." Chart. World Bank. N.p.: n.p., 2011. N. pag. Print.

"ForeignAssistance.gov." ForeignAssistance.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2012.

            <http://foreignassistance.gov/CountryIntro.aspx>.

Lagon, Mark P. "The International System and the Reagan Doctrine: Can Realism

Explain Aid to ‘Freedom Fighters’?" British Journal of Political Science 22.01 (1992): 39. Print.

United States. Cong. Middle Eastern Affairs, Defense. CRS Report for Congress: U.S.

            Foreign Aid to the Palestinians. Comp. Jeremy M. Sharp. By Christopher M.

            Blanchard. Cong. Rept. N.p., n.d. Web.

Wingfield, Brian. "Making Sense Of U.S. Foreign Aid To Egypt And Elsewhere."

            Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 29 Jan. 2011. Web. 16 Sept. 2012.