President Donald Trump made his “America First” policies a focal point during his campaign, commenting in February 2024 that he intends to end foreign aid that is not structured as a loan. Although this sounds drastic, Trump’s plans are not always as outlandish as they may sound. Throughout U.S. history, foreign aid has often camouflaged ruthless conditions that maintain the country’s own economic profits and global interests. Even though the United States only spends a fraction of its annual budget on foreign aid, it has an outsized impact that can fundamentally sabotage the status of developing nations.
In 2023 alone, the U.S. government allocated 63 billion dollars in aid to resource-strapped and crisis-hit countries around the world, from Ukraine to Ethiopia. The United States’ prominent role in organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) means American policymakers wield significant influence when it comes to determining how aid is dispersed. U.S. foreign aid has world-changing potential due to its sheer magnitude, but the consequences of U.S. aid are anything but humanitarian. This reprehensible practice is deeply rooted in the legacy of imperialism and intentionally reinforces global inequality. Disillusionment about global power dynamics leads some to believe that World War II slammed shut our world’s chapter of uninhibited imperialism. However, today, instead of military subjugation, developing nations are intertwined in a modern system of control through foreign aid contributions. Western powers funnel influence through institutions like the IMF, which offer conditional loans that cripple struggling economies enforcing ill intentioned rules and regulations. Measures like structural adjustment programs require unreliable austerity measures, which are harsh policies that reduce budget deficits, and this approach is often detrimental to development for these nations.
Historically, there has been no correlation between foreign aid and economic growth in developing countries. Alternatively, economic freedom and economic growth have strong correlations. If the goal of foreign aid is to restore stability and promote development, it should be considered a complete failure. It is clear that aid serves another purpose, which becomes evident when examining how foreign aid is defined and implemented. Developed nations continually misrepresent what counts as aid, with nearly 15% of foreign aid going back to rich countries. Funds that are actually provided to developing countries are conditional and often do not trickle down to the people who need them most, such as marginalized individuals and communities in extreme poverty Requirements that Western nations enforce, such as market deregulation and privatization, which are often prerequisites for aid to be given, are shown to have no impact on countries’ market-oriented policies. Despite this, Western nations continue to impose significant restrictions on aid distribution, which are obviously engineered to enable further exploitation of the developing world.
Mali serves as a notable example of how foreign aid, despite being presented as humanitarian assistance, is exploited to uphold inequalities and hinder independent development. Since gaining independence in 1960, Mali has dealt with political instability and a struggling economy. Currently, the nation is amid a civil conflict that has put millions of people in need of humanitarian assistance. Unfortunately, foreign aid from Western nations and the IMF has only exacerbated the crisis, with politicians redirecting the funds toward corrupt political figures and unpopular issues — actions made permissible by the international community’ lack of safeguarding for these aid processes. Data finds that foreign aid completely failed to improve the quality of life for most Malians, when the aid was originally meant to provide food assistance, education and infrastructure development. Instead, the funds enabled and helped platform corrupt governance by channeling a disproportionate amount of money to the Ifoghas Tuaregs, an ethnic group that misused the money to elevate their own platform. Experts speculate that this aid could be directly responsible for the civil conflict and political crisis that is currently occurring in Mali.
Mali’s case study exemplifies the destructive nature of some foreign aid, but that is not to say that genuine progress isn’t being made in the developing world. Even in the face of the West’s exploitative behaviors, global conditions are improving. There has been a substantial decrease in global poverty in the past 30 years and several deadly diseases, from HIV to polio, have been largely neutralized or at least severely mitigated. Some progress in these areas can be attributed to aid, but it is hard to ignore that the reason these issues were rampant in the first place is due to destruction perpetuated by imperialism. Moreover, efficient and well-intentioned foreign policies — like those preventing exploitative measures — would enable developing countries to build self-sustaining economies and improve quality of life.
Foreign aid is simply a new wave of colonialism, one part of the vicious cycle of imperialism imposed by the Western world for centuries. To see developing countries prosper, their governments must be able to break out of this cycle, which begins by completely reevaluating the concept of foreign aid. Foreign aid is not charity — it’s a deliberate effort to influence other governments and economies, stalling self-sufficiency.
To create an equitable global society, the United States and other developed and highly industrialized nations must end their exploitative practices — instead, these governments and their partners need to take accountability for their role in international inequality. By offering actual reparations, debt forgiveness and fair trade policies, developing countries can grow independently instead of being tethered. A collaborative international system is hard to achieve, but the first step is empowering everybody, and that starts by respecting national autonomy.
Contact Zayn Bandukwalla at zbanduk@emory.edu.
