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 Trapped in this outdated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