Business News
New Brookings Press Book Calls for More Development Assistance, Less Aid to Dictators
2008-07-29 13:17:00
New Brookings Press Book Calls for More Development Assistance, Less Aid to Dictators
Alliance Curse: How America Lost the Third World WASHINGTON, July 29 /EMWNews/ -- The Cold War mentality that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" continues to drive American foreign policy, according to author Hilton Root. Trapped in this outdated mindset, Washington persists in forging alliances with dictators who do not share its values of freedom and democracy. The unfortunate result is a legacy of resentment and distrust among the people of the developing world. Alliance Curse argues that the United States should foster real economic development in the Third World rather than simply supply aid to authoritarian regimes. In the new Brookings Institution Press book, Root offers recommendations on how to close the gap between short-term security needs and long-term global economic development, warning against sacrificing the latter for the former. He buttresses his argument with real-world case studies of alliances with China, the Philippines, South Vietnam and Iran. Alliance Curse illustrates how misguided foreign aid policy can backfire, stunting rather than advancing political and economic development. Partnering with dictators can produce perverse disincentives for those regimes to govern for prosperity, resulting in corruption, economic failure and instability. These policies contradict America's image as the champion of freedom and democracy, making the developing world even more wary of its intentions. Root claims that this self-defeating tendency continues because U.S. policy-makers find that demands for security, affordable raw materials and access to markets are most easily accomplished by cutting deals with autocrats. Democracies, even poor ones, are less likely to exchange policy concessions for aid. Accordingly, the most corrupt low-income countries, those generally under autocratic rule, receive the bulk of U.S. bilateral assistance. But the ill effects of this trade-off can linger for generations. The linkage of U.S. aid to oppressive regimes erodes goodwill toward America among indignant populations. And when the foreign assistance dries up -- as it invariably does -- the dictators themselves frequently turn on America and end their cooperation. According to Root, it is no wonder then that the United States faces major foreign policy dilemmas in the very countries that were major recipients of aid. The Author Hilton L. Root is a professor at George Mason University's School of Public Policy and a senior fellow with the Mercatus Center. He previously taught at Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania, and has served as adviser to the U.S. Treasury and the Asian Development Bank. He is the author of Capital and Collusion: The Political Logic of Global Economic Development (Princeton, 2006) and coeditor with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita of Governing for Prosperity (Yale, 2000). The Brookings Institution is a private nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and innovative policy solutions. For more than 90 years, Brookings has analyzed current and emerging issues and produced new ideas that matter -- for the nation and the world. Alliance Curse: How America Lost the Third World Hilton L. Root Brookings Institution Press Pub date: July 19, 2008 6 x 9 -- 286 pages cloth, ISBN 978-0-8157-7556-0, $28.95/£16.99
Major Newsire & Press Release Distribution with Basic Starting at only $19 and Complete OTCBB / Financial Distribution only $89
Get Unlimited Organic Website Traffic to your Website
TheNFG.com now offers Organic Lead Generation & Traffic Solutions