The United States After The Cold War On The Evolution Of The Non-aid Policies

Africa-aid is an important element of U.S. foreign policy as well as a tool in its implementation of national strategy. There was a very strong political motivation in U.S. Africa-aid policy during the Cold War. After the Cold War, when the strategic importance of Africa faced a sharp decline with the end of the confrontation between the United States and Soviet Union, the United States began to make adjustment in its Africa-aid and a policy of contraction was deployed. By the meanwhile, the United States also made some combinations between aid, business and investments, direct supports and indirect interventions in regional affairs, as a way to enlarge its trade with African nations and to serve its political and security interests on the continent. After 911 terrorist attack, the United States reassessed its policy on Africa-Aid, and promoted it to the same level with foreign affairs and national defense. The foreign aid thus became one of the three pillars supporting the security of the United States.The U.S. government aid to Africa can be classified as bilateral aid and multilateral aid. The multilateral aid which is known as the indirect aid is mainly conducted through international financial institutions and U.N agencies in the fields of aid fund, food supply, peace-operations, security support, debt exemption and some other regional programs. The bilateral aid which is known as direct aid is operated in a number of channels among which the U.S. government institutions or NGOs play a very important role. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is a key player in transferring bilateral development support from U.S. government to Africa nations, and its project includes environment protection, infrastructure building, energy development, AIDS prevention, and training on labor workers. Besides, various NGO assistances also serve as supplementary to government aids.The U.S. Africa-aid in some extent fostered the economic development in Africa and also benefited the solution of some global issues. But obviously the fundamental purpose of U.S. Africa-aid is to serve its national strategy, so inevitably there are some limitations.