As the world enters a globalized age, the interactions between nations become increasingly important. What was once a ‘all for one, one for all’ mentality, with nations acting mostly in their own best interests -barring, of course, the alliances made between nations, often military in nature acting against a common foe- has become a question of the common good. What obligation to help, if any, do countries with well developed economies and militaries have towards those nations in need? Nations that form economic alliances with other nations develop more quickly than they could have on their own, and aid from a greater international power can make a large difference in the economy and livelihood of developing countries. The United States, annually, donates somewhere between $30-50 billion to foreign aid, in an effort to help those nations that find themselves torn by war, disease, poverty, a lack of education, and a myriad of other problems. The question becomes one of what role does the United States play in foreign affairs, particularly that concerning foreign aid, and whether the United States is obligated to play that role, and ‘do its part,’ so to speak, on the global stage. Several factors will be examined to determine the answer, namely; the United States foreign aid budget and what the funds actually do, the comparison between the private and public sectors of foreign aid, the benefits of trade versus aid, and the roles of other developed nations in foreign aid.
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Many skeptics challenge the reasoning for investing so much money into helping so many other countries when that money could instead help us improve internal affairs. After all, foreign aid spending has increased to $50 billion a year today, which could be put towards funding education to ensure that more kids go to college and possibly affecting the innovation of the future(Morris). Giving more than you receive is nice, but when it involves a country 's financial crisis, maybe it 's best if Santa cuts back some of this year 's presents. And although the argument may be valid, lending out a helping hand can create more allies than enemies to help us in return when we need it. In fact, foreign aid only accounts for 0.5 percent of the federal budget (Stearn). Compared to all the other matters at hand that the government is worrying about, the amount of spending put into aiding poorer countries is positive in both a moral aspect and a political aspect.
Ever had that one friend? The one who tries to help, but no matter how hard he tries, he just aggravates the situation. This friend, Steve, insists he is helping, and those around, too, would support that he is indeed helping. But Steve is actually worsening the circumstances. He is like countries who provide foreign aid to less developed countries. Foreign aid, defined as “the international transfer of capital, goods, or services from a country or international organization for the benefit of the recipient country or its population,” can be military, economic, or humanitarian (“Foreign”). It is often granted to less developed countries in order to evoke government reforms or to stimulate economic growth. However, foreign aid neither elicits government reform, nor does it consistently and reliably stimulate economic growth; therefore, the United States should discontinue providing foreign economic aid.
As a civilized nation who is a leader in development and progress, the United States Federal Government has a responsibility to provide foreign aid.
Individual Identity: Every year my family tries to take a trip back to China in order to see family. On trip back played a big role in shaping my identity. In the summer of 2012 I had the daunting task of travelling alone China. This consisted of mastering the Chinese phrases needed to guide me along the way and some way of figuring out how to transfer flights. Surprisingly the hardest part was not finding my way it was merely being alone I found that I got very lonely in the long 14 hour trip and I needed to find a way to occupy myself in order to avoid loneliness. The things I learned from being lonely help form my identity. I found that the more I tried to push away the loneliness the more it just came
Riddell, Roger C. 2007. Does Foreign Aid Really Work? 1st ed. OXFORD: Oxford University Press, USA.
According the US Census Bureau, the United States spent $44.957 billion on foreign aid in 2009, in terms of total foreign assistance. Of that, just over $11 billion was military assistance. The nations that received the most foreign aid were Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and Pakistan. Some aid went to financial institutions and to aid agencies, and therefore is difficult to classify by country. By regions, Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East were the biggest recipients of foreign aid. The recipients and types of foreign aid are indicative of priorities that the US government has with respect to foreign relations. As many people applaud high levels of foreign aid from the US to poor countries around the world, foreign aid also has its critics. From a domestic perspective, criticisms include the argument that this money would be better used in the United States, and the libertarian argument against all forms of foreign aid in general. It is worth noting that many critics of foreign aid still support aid to support military objectives, which includes the four largest recipient of aid (Traub, 2011). External critics of foreign aid argue that such aid has generally failed to achieve its objectives, for a variety of reasons ranging from rapidly increasing populations to corruption to the promotion of dependency relationships (Bovard, 1986). This paper will analyze US foreign aid in the context of its success and failures and make the case that the United States
The United States has been helping other countries with their economic and military problems since the beginning of the 1900’s when World War I was going on. In most cases we are allies and see we a country in need. At this point we assess the situation and format a plan in order to help through USAID. This is a government agency that pairs with others in different countries to provide aid and promote democratic societies. Aid is now being given in large quantities to many countries just to keep them stable and with a decent military. Has the assistance gone too far like having a young adult who will not stop borrowing money off their parents? Our economic opportunities in the US suffer partially due to financial assistance we give to foreign countries. Americans lose the most when our country is constantly giving away money that we do not have creating even more debt for our country. We are giving the financial assistance to countries in order to boost their economic state, then constantly seeing no progress. Better control over our countries budget and how we deal with other countries as far as our relationship to them could possibly help the United States economy. The way in which we limit what is given out to other countries and start working on our country’s economic issues will ultimately determine how we will continue aiding to the growth of other countries.
The question at hand is not whether aid from the developed north should be given at all, but whether or not it should be increased to help ease the suffering of the developing countries in the south. Every country, whether rich or poor, should have compassion for the suffering. However, it is not the duty of the developed north to completely take care of every developing country. In the present, there are serious problems that need to be addressed dealing with how aid is given out: misuse of funds by governments, the corruption it creates, economies it destroys, lack of votes it buys at the United Nations, and finally the question of who has priority.
The United States stepped up and defined its role as “world police” at the onsite of communism in the 1900s. The U.S. assumed the role in an effort to assist countries by intervening in their governments. However, today we are facing an era of terrorism, and the United States is still concerning itself with this role. Along with “policing” the world, the U.S. has concerned itself with loaning aid to poverty ridden nations. This is dangerous because when nations become dependent on foreign aid, they expect it. What happens when the aid is withdrawn from them? Picture a country in extreme poverty. The people are desperate, and with desperation comes impulsiveness. Without
Whether or not foreign aid is being used as a tool or as a weapon remains a question. Each year we use foreign aid to threaten hungry countries all over the world. People fear the United States will withdraw from any type of aid they are associated with causing even more trouble than good. About half of U.S. foreign aid goes to the six countries that are Washington’s allies; these are against terror attacks and drug transportation. Foreign aid is viewed as good because it makes the world a safer place, it leaves countries cleaner and healthier, however others view it as harmful because of the cost, it fuels rampant corruption in countries that receive it, and it creates poverty.
Many critics of America's policies on foreign aid claim foreign countries have used America to build themselves up to a position of self-reliance, then refused to make promised or implied concessions to the US, when they no longer see the need to cater to American interests any longer. The aid is justified partly by a sense of charity and responsibility towards the world, but there were also political
Considering recent economic and sociopolitical incidents in the middle east and Africa and the U.S’ increasing unpopularity as an oppressive ethical enforcer in Europe and Asia, it must be implored with the greatest sobriety that America terminate most all financial donations to and interferences with other countries. A more practical use of the resources currently invested in foreign aid is monetary assistance for the Americans who are in need of food and shelter. In this way, the U.S.A may gradually lose their unfortunate reputation and improve their standard of living. It is quite invigorating to think of the potential of the America to
Buzzwords such as globalization and terrorism have dominated political rhetoric for the past quarter-century. Assessing the benefits that come with globalization — namely, the disbursement of free trade, democratic values, cultural and informational intermingling, etc. — one would expect an increased quality of life across the board. Yet it appears that inequality and bloodshed has only aggrandized as a result of this worldwide integration of goods and ideas. Rather than fostering a universal understanding of humanity amongst nations and their imagined communities, globalization seems to have exacerbated primitive fears about the unknown — “the others”. Minorities have become further systematically marginalized by those in power (the elite), and political and cultural violence, both literal and symbolic, is at its prime.
Now that our country is undergoing serious fiscal deficits, the nation's costly foreign aid commitments must be reexamined. Thesis: The U.S. should stop giving foreign aid because the original purpose of foreign aid, to stop the threat of Communism, has expired. Foreign aid given for economic development, though admirable, cannot be justified, considering its past failures along with the unprecedented financial difficulties facing our country
Aspects of Globalisation The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defined globalisation as, 'The geographical dispersion of industrial and service activities (for example, research and development, sourcing of inputs, production and distribution and the cross border networking of companies (for example through joint ventures and the sharing of assets) Economic activity is becoming organised on a global scale giving a new international division of labour, with production, investment patterns and movements and technology transfers all becoming global. In this strategy, activities are established in many sites spread over the world, based on a country's comparative