Winning hearts & minds

The dilemma of foreign aid in anti-Americanism

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3916828
AutoresEfe Tokdemir (0000-0002-9579-1292, The Ohio State University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2017
Volumen54
Número6
Páginas819-832
Fecha de publicación2017-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022343317708831
OpenAlexW2752489255
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas26
Referencias citadas66

Foreign aid is a policy tool implemented with the purpose of fostering both hard and soft power abroad. Yet, previous research has not probed the effects of US foreign aid on public attitudes toward the US in the recipient countries. In this article, I argue that US foreign aid may actually feed anti-Americanism: aid indirectly creates winners and losers in the recipient countries, such that politically discontented people may blame the US for the survival of the prevailing regime. Drawing on Pew Research for Global Attitudes and on USAID Greenbook datasets, I focus on determining both the conditions under which foreign aid exacerbates anti-Americanism and the type of aid most likely to do this. The findings reveal that political losers of the recipient countries are more likely to express negative attitudes toward the USA as the amount of US aid increases, whereas political winners enjoy the results of US aid and view the USA positively accordingly. Moreover, the effect of US aid on attitudes toward the USA is also conditional on the regime type. While US aid increases the likelihood of anti-American attitudes among the losers in non-democratic countries, it decreases the likelihood of anti-Americanism among the losers in democratic ones. This article has important implications for policy in terms of determining how and to whom to provide aid in the context of the possible ramifications of providing aid at the individual level

Blame · Context (archaeology) · Democracy · Development aid · Development economics · Economics · Foreign policy · Humanitarian aid · International relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Global Education and Multiculturalism · International Development and Aid · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology