From the American People: USAID and The Degradation of Foreign Aid Under the Trump Administration - By Kareem Faraj

A US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III descends on the sleepy city of Cúcuta, Colombia. The massive aircraft touches down, taxies along the runway and parks in front of a hangar. Servicemen scramble to unload its cargo: humanitarian aid destined for crisis-stricken Venezuela, less than 10 km to the west of the city. Its mission accomplished, the C-17 takes off, its imposing silhouette dark against the early morning sky. The food and medicine it delivered will help provide relief for Venezuela’s most vulnerable.

At least, that’s the official story.

While the sudden influx of humanitarian aid to the Venezuelan border may seem like a heartwarming display of international solidarity, an uplifting headline in a sea of bad news, it would be foolish to be blinded to reality. The aid is not a token of the American people’s goodwill, it is a cold, calculated move by the Trump administration to exert pressure on Venezuela’s embattled people and government. It is a direct involvement in the South American country’s ongoing presidential crisis.

Over the course of its 57-year history, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has known its fair share of controversy and criticism for its meddling in other countries’ domestic affairs under the cover of humanitarian aid. One only has to think back to 2009 when it was revealed that a USAID-run HIV prevention workshop in Cuba was, in fact, being used as a cover by the Obama administration to sow dissent against the Castro regime.[1]

The United States has never shied away from using humanitarian aid to further its foreign policy goals. In fact, one may argue that bilateral aid from any country, great or small, is intrinsically tainted by politics. From the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift at the dawn of the Cold War to the reconstruction of a post-2003 Iraq, aid from the United States, be it humanitarian, financial or military, has always come with “strings attached”. Behind the façade of goodwill and fraternity amongst peoples is a powerful tool to further America’s ambitions and objectives. To this day, international aid remains an important component of US soft power across the world.

Under the Trump administration, however, international aid and development, much like US foreign policy, has lost its tact and subtlety. The Manichaean attitude President Trump seems to have inherited from his background in business divides the world into clear “winners” and “losers” with no in between. It is with this mindset that the 45^th President of the United States alienated his fellow NATO allies by demanding they dedicate more towards defense, reducing sometimes century-old relationships to a mere monetary transaction.

The Trump administration seems to have adopted a similarly arrogant approach to the current presidential crisis in Venezuela. It has imposed crippling sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company - the lifeblood of the country’s already fragile economy - and then attempted to swoop in with humanitarian aid, posing as the savior in a crisis it had a hand in making.[2] The United States is not sending food and medical supplies to help the Venezuelan people but to dangle it at the border, daring to hope that the National Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela will revolt against their own government and instigate regime change to end the country’s economic and humanitarian woes. The much-needed food and medical supplies are cynically being used as a mere PR stunt.

It would be unreasonably idealistic to think that the influence of politics can ever be completely eliminated from bilateral aid and international development, but the advancement of foreign policy goals must go hand in hand with providing concrete help to those suffering from poverty, malnutrition or sickness. Under the Trump administration, humanitarian aid has turned into a farce of its former self: an easy way to grab headlines, stir up anti-Venezuelan sentiment and a blatant attempt at forcing a regime change in a sovereign country. By reducing the role of international humanitarian aid to that of a glorified marketing department for US intervention, the United States is losing one of its most powerful tools for securing its position in this increasingly multipolar world.

The needless politicization of humanitarian aid must stop. The brutish approach taken by the Trump administration is harming US soft power and credibility across the world while also holding those in desperate need hostage to the political whims of Washington. A peaceful, prosperous world is in the best interest of the United States as it would provide much-needed stability to the international arena. To quote President John F. Kennedy, “widespread poverty and chaos lead to a collapse of existing political and social structures which would inevitably invite the advance of totalitarianism into every weak and unstable area. Thus, our own security would be endangered, and our prosperity imperiled…”[3]

While the concept of an investment whose return cannot be measured in dollars may be completely alien to President Trump, it would be a grave mistake to run international humanitarian aid as a glorified short-term propaganda tool. International aid is certainly not without its faults, but its availability during a time of need forges strong ties in a community of interconnected nations and is essential in creating a better future for all its members, be they donors or receivers.

Peace, Mr. Trump, does not have a price.


- Kareem Faraj (Sciences Humaines)

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[1]

Associated Press in Washington (2014, August 4) USAID programme used young Latin Americans to incite Cuba rebellion. The Guardian, Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/04/usaid-latin-americans-cuba-rebellion-hiv-workshops

[2]

Roache, M. (2019, February 28). Sanctions, Venezuela and US intentions. Aljazeera, Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/sanctions-venezuela-intentions-190226124044497.html

[3]

Kennedy, J. F. (n.d.). Foreign Aid - John f. Kennedy’s special message to the congress on foreign aid. American Foreign Relations, Retrieved from https://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Foreign-Aid-John-f-kennedy-s-special-message-to-the-congress-on-foreign-aid.html