Religion and Foreign Aid

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 522-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Domike Blackman

AbstractForeign aid allocations represent one of several important economic policy tools used by governments to realize their foreign policy objectives. Using a conjoint survey of respondents in the United States, this paper shows that recipient country religion is a significant determinant of individual-level foreign aid preferences. In particular, respondents express a preference for giving to Christian-majority countries in contrast to Muslim- or Buddhist-majority countries. This effect is comparable with that of other important determinants of support for foreign aid, such as a country's status as a U.S. ally or trade partner. Importantly, the preference for Christian recipient countries is especially pronounced among Christian, and most notably Evangelical Christian, respondents. This paper explores two potential mechanisms for the effect of religion: country religion as a heuristic and an individual-level preference for giving to co-religionists.

2019 ◽  
pp. 243-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amnon Cavari ◽  
Guy Freedman

A rich body of work examines the public agenda in democratic countries. These studies rely on aggregate responses to survey questions that ask respondents to report their issue priorities—commonly using topline data of the most important problem survey series (MIP). This research design, however, is not sensitive to differences in issue priorities between individuals and groups and, therefore, fails to account for the possible variation within the general public. To overcome this neglect in existing literature, we examine individual-level responses to the most important problem question in two countries—the United States and Israel—focusing specifically on economic and foreign policy priorities. We reveal that beyond aggregate trends in the public agenda, socio-demographic factors in both countries explain some of the variation in issue dynamics.


Build ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Mark Katz

The introduction explains why the partnership between hip hop diplomacy is unlikely and risky but also potentially productive. Hip hop is a powerful platform for US cultural diplomacy because it is globally popular, widely accessible, readily combined with a variety of artistic styles and practices, and immediately and positively associated with the United States. Hip hop diplomacy can serve US foreign policy objectives by enhancing the image of the United States and promoting US interests abroad. The introduction concludes with a reflection on the author’s identity as a white man and considers its implications for working in hip hop, a genre and culture that arose out of African American communities.


1962 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Morgenthau

Of the seeming and real innovations which the modern age has introduced into the practice of foreign policy, none has proven more baffling to both understanding and action than foreign aid. The very assumption that foreign aid is an instrument of foreign policy is a subject of controversy. For, on the one hand, the opinion is widely held that foreign aid is an end in itself, carrying its own justification, both transcending, and independent of, foreign policy. In this view, foreign aid is the fulfillment of an obligation of the few rich nations toward the many poor ones. On the other hand, many see no justification for a policy of foreign aid at all. They look at it as a gigantic boon-doggle, a wasteful and indefensible operation which serves neither the interests of the United States nor those of the recipient nations.


Worldview ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 19-20
Author(s):  
John A. Marcum

Contrary to popular perceptions, the governments of the United States and Angola share a core of compatible foreign policy objectives. Each government, for its own reasons, believes that its national interests may be best served by reducing border conflict and external intervention in highly flammable Southwest Africa. This congruence of interests became increasingly apparent and even led to a measure of bilateral cooperation dur ing the last years of the Carter administration.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amnon Cavari ◽  
Guy Freedman

How does the extension of party conflict to a foreign policy issue affect the ability of Americans to form an opinion about the issue? We test this using elite references and longitudinal public opinion data about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, a salient foreign policy issue in the United States that is increasingly characterized by partisan divisions. Our findings demonstrate that since the turn of the 21st century, the availability and clarity of party cues have increased, as well as the share of Americans who hold an opinion about the issue. Applying regression models to individual-level data, we reveal that the extension of party conflict to this issue has made it easier for more Americans to form an opinion.


1993 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Leonard

Since the fall of Nicaragua's Somoza dynasty in 1979, nearly 900 books dealing with Central America have appeared. They repeat the themes of imperialism, paternalism, and security that traditionally have characterized studies about Central America and its relations with the U.S. The imperialist theme is pursued by Walter LaFeber's Inevitable Revolutions and Karl Berman's Under the Big Stick. They assert that the United States economically exploited and politically controlled Central America in general and Nicaragua in particular. A sense of moral righteousness is found in Tom Buckley's Violent Neighbors and Richard Alan White's The Morass while the security theme is pursued by John Findling in his Close Neighbors, Distant Friends. Histories about Central America reinforce these themes. For example, the Dean of the U.S. Central Americanists Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr., and Costa Ricans Edelberto Torres-Rivas and Hector Pérez-Brignoli, and Honduran Mario Argueta demonstrate that the American businessmen capitalized upon the ignorance of region's elite for their own economic gain. Despite their diversity, all of these volumes demonstrate that the United States dominated the relationship and criticize it for so doing.


Geosul ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (77) ◽  
pp. 258-269
Author(s):  
Maurício Santoro

Since 2009 China has been Brazil´s biggest trade partner, and its important ally. However, the nationalist right that won the 2018 elections has a critical perspective of the country. This paper maps the views on China held by the new Brazilian government, both in terms of the economic arguments (protectionism of industry, fear of Chinese control of infrastructure and natural resources) and political concerns (the desire for a diplomatic rapprochement with the United States and anti-communism hostility towards Beijing). The paper claims that these positions are important for foreign policy decision-making and that they complicate relations with China, but that is also necessary to take into account more moderate views from other groups in the administration.


Author(s):  
Amy Below

Latin American foreign policy has drawn the attention of scholars since the 1960s. Foreign policy–related literature began to surge in the 1980s and 1990s, with a focus on both economic and political development. As development in the region lagged behind that of its northern neighbors, Latin American had to rely on foreign aid, largely from the United States. In addition to foreign aid, two of the most prevalent topics discussed in the literature are trade/economic liberalization and regional economic integration (for example, Mercosur and NAFTA). During and after the Cold War, Latin America played a strategic foreign policy role as it became the object of a rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union hoping to expand their power and/or contain that of the other. This role was also explored in a considerably larger body of research, along with the decision of Latin American nations to diversify their foreign relations in the post–Cold War era. Furthermore, scholars have analyzed different regions/countries that have become new and/or expanded targets of Latin American foreign policy, including the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Despite the substantial amount of scholarship that has accumulated over the years, a unified theory of Latin American foreign policy remains elusive. Future research should therefore focus on the development of a theory that incorporates the multiple explanatory variables that influence foreign policy formulation and takes into account their relative importance and the effects on each other.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-123
Author(s):  
Todd Green

The intersection of Islamophobia and US foreign policy has attracted considerablescholarly attention since 9/11. Landmark books exploring thisconnection include Mahmood Mamdani’s Good Muslim, Bad Muslim:America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terrorism, and Deepa Kumar’s Islamophobiaand the Politics of Empire.  Douglas Little’s Us Versus Them: The United States, Radical Islam, andthe Rise of the Green Threat is not as ambitious as these studies. It does notforge new theoretical ground in our understanding of how Islamophobiais instrumentalized to bolster US foreign policy objectives. But this is notnecessarily a criticism. Little’s purpose is more modest, though his projectno less difficult. He seeks to provide a lively, accessible introduction to USengagement with Muslim extremists since the end of the Cold War and theproblematic paradigms that have shaped this policy. In this task, he succeedsadmirably ...


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