| Why does the U.S. give foreign aid? There are compelling humanitarian and economic reasons, yet the U.S. also gives large amounts of military aid. What, then, are the overall goals of aid giving in the post 9/11 era? In looking at the history of U.S. foreign aid, three general objectives emerge: political stability, increased economic liberalization and expanding soft power influence in the aid receiving country. While we can identify the motives and aims of U.S. foreign aid, little work has been done to evaluate the success of aid in these objectives. It is the goal of this study to assess the success of combined U.S. economic and military aid in accomplishing these three general foreign policy objectives across the case countries of Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Russia and Zambia, which represent a range of aid beneficiaries. Using statistical analysis based on three indices, this thesis will evaluate whether there is a correlation between U.S. foreign aid and the attainment of these three broad U.S. foreign policy aims. |
