CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Foreign aid represents a relatively recent element in the interaction between sovereign states. Most scholars agree that modern foreign aid came into existence only after the Second World War when the United States started to support countries around the world, especially in Europe. Additionally, foreign aid seemingly represents an exception to the prevailing rules of statecraft in which states generally act on the basis of their respective national interests.
Aid, as the term in itself already implies, is usually understood by laymen as having its main goal to help the developing world through inducing economic, social, and political development in the recipient states. Equally, the very words aid or assistance seem to imply a disinterested and altruistic motivation on the part of the donor states. Yet, a closer look at the patterns of aid distribution by donor states, or into the technical literature on the subject quickly reveals that altruism does not seem to constitute the only motivation for aid-giving. (Ian little, Juliet Clifford and Osvaldo Feinstein, 1965), have addressed the confusion surrounding this technology already by stating that ―buying something from a man may help him, but one does not speak of ‗aiding‘ him if it is something that one wants.‖ Hence, the question is posed: What are the intentions and rationales of donor states if the motivation for aid-giving is not purely humanitarian and altruistic? It is in this subject where the main interest of the present work lies.
In recent times, during the presidential administration of Bill Clinton, the American foreign aid program underwent the most fundamental changes in its entire history regarding the amounts of aid allocated to developing countries. Most strikingly, the amounts of Official Development
Assistance (ODA) distributed by the United States, if measured in inflation-adjusted 2010 dollars, reached both an all-time minimum as well as a historic peak within less than a decade (1997 with $9 billion and 2005 with $31 billion, respectively). Thus, the subject of interest of the present work is to explain these changes regarding the amounts and the ways of U.S. foreign aid allocation, i.e. to define what the reasons and the motivations were that led the United States to undertake these changes in its foreign aid policies during the time in question here.
To understand the in-depth position of the topic and its motives, we have to understand the direct relationship between the activities of the bill Clinton administration and the exact parts of Africa this aids where targeted to affect more so its necessity at that time. Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara Desert. Politically, it consists of all African countries that are fully or partially located south of the Sahara (excluding Sudan, even though Sudan sits in the Eastern portion of the Sahara desert).