Cooper Clyde“Promotion of international development” is one of the declared priorities of U.S. foreign policy. After the end of World War II, a significant role was played by the Marshall Plan, a program of assistance to war-torn countries of Western Europe. The U.S. Agency for International Development was established in 1961. Each year the U.S. allocates 0.5% of the federal budget to “international development assistance”. The U.S. aid is directed to support almost 100 pro-American regimes in such regions as sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East. The U.S. is the world leader in the provision of official “development assistance” (ODA) in absolute terms. In 2007, the US ODA amounted to 21,787 million dollars (in 2006 – 23,532 million dollars, in 2005 – 27,935 million dollars, in 2004 – 19,705 million dollars).
The United States also provides significant military assistance to its allies. By the end of fiscal year 2011, $28.3 billion worth of military products was delivered to foreign countries under the intergovernmental agreement on military assistance program (FMS). Another $6.5 billion worth of military goods were delivered under various security agreements. The list of top ten U.S. arms buyers, which allowed the U.S. to earn over $30 billion, included Afghanistan ($5.4 billion), Taiwan ($4.9 billion), India ($4.5 billion), Australia ($3.9 billion), Saudi Arabia ($3.5 billion), Iraq ($2 billion), UAE ($1.5 billion), Israel ($1.4 billion), Japan ($0.5 billion), Sweden ($0.5 billion).
The U.S. has been providing significant financial assistance to Israel since its inception in 1948. Besides military aid, Israel receives so-called “economic aid” from the US (the money goes to pay off Israel’s debt on military loans taken from the US before 1985). Since 1986, the total amount of aid is about $3 billion a year.
Sometimes the U.S. refusal of aid is used as a pressure tool. For example, military assistance to 35 countries which refused to sign agreements with the United States not to extradite U.S. citizens to the International Criminal Court has been terminated (the treaty establishing the court was first signed by the United States, but then it withdrew its signature). At the same time, as of July 2003, the U.S. had managed to conclude such agreements with 51 countries.
It has become known that the U.S. will reduce financial aid to Ukraine by nearly 70 percent. Thus, Ukraine can expect to receive only 177 million dollars instead of the planned 570 million dollars.
