Abstract

Since 9/11 the Bush administration has made larger pledges than ever to the cause of promoting development and fighting HIV/AIDS in various corners of the globe. Foreign aid policy initiatives taken by the Republican president needed some explanations considering the GOP's longstanding dislike for foreign aid. One of the common answers was 9/11; the U.S. had to address the sources of discontent against itself by providing foreign development assistance to countries most vulnerable to terrorist infiltration. This paper argues that U.S. foreign aid during the Bush administration is not just a response to the spread of anti-American sentiments among failed and failing states but an outgrowth of foreign policy ideas that had shaped the liberal hegemon's vision of the new world order since the end of the Cold War. Particularly continuities between the Clinton and Bush administrations are stressed in terms of foreign policy ideas. Three themes of post-Cold War U.S. foreign policies are identified here: globalization, democracy promotion, and good governance. Globalization has been touted as the facilitator of economic prosperity through the liberalization of trade and capital flows. Democracy promotion has been endorsed as a long-term solution to security instability of the post-Cold War world. Good governance has been advanced as a yardstick by which to compare countries in their willingness and capability to be part of global community. Those major tenets of U.S. foreign policy affected the policy outlook of foreign aid in a way that makes less significant the difference between the Clinton and Bush administrations than is assumed.