Living Democracy, Feeding Hope
Betraying the National Interest: How U.S. Foreign Aid Threatens Global Security by Undermining the Political and Economic Stability of the Third World
ISBN 0802130275
By Frances Moore Lappé, Rachel Schurman, and Kevin Danaher
Is U.S. foreign aid counterproductive? Yes, if you believe this vigorously argued analysis. According to the authors, development assistance and food aid take a back seat to political and military goals (in Egypt and Israel), and this country props up tyrants (Marcos and Mobutu) as anti-Soviet bulwarks, with predictable results. Dominated by dogma and ideology, foreign aid serves neither recipients nor Americans. The authors propose radical changes in foreign policy. There is much food for thought in this provocative treatise, but readers will have to draw their own conclusions. Recommended.Ian Wallace, Agriculture Canada Lib., St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Foreign Aid and the National Interest 3
1 Security Aid: But Who's More Secure? 15
2 Armed Aid: At War With American Values 27
3 Development Assistance-For Whose Development? 56
4. U.S. Food Aid: Weapon Against HUnger? 84
5.The Free Market and Free Trade; AID's Formula 116
6. Foreign Aid and American Security: The Real Threat
7. What Can We Do? A Question of Responsibility?
Index
WHAT THE READERS SAY
A significant book. Americans think of our foreign aid as a generous and insufficiently appreciated benefit to other people. But this book makes clear that it is not always beneficial-to the receivers or to us. It often increases dependency and misery. Change is essential, and Betraying the National Interest points the way." —The New York Times