Dollar diplomacy round 2?

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kiryan
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Dollar diplomacy round 2?

Postby kiryan » Tue May 24, 2011 5:40 pm

Dollar diplomacy was a term used to describe Taiwan's essentially paying countries to establish diplomatic relations and recognize its soverignity by opening up its markets and giving them aid. That all collapsed when China became a more lucrative market and said you recognize us or them.

Here's round 2, US style. A dangerous idea to give aid only to countries that vote with us at the UN. I think it is a terribly misguided suggestion and would make even worse policy. However, I agree that I don't like our money going to countries that actively work against our interests and would be keen to just say cut it all off or establish some sort of standard that doesn't involve agreeing with our voting record... like perhaps lack of corruption, personal freedoms in their own country etc etc etc...

There are particular problems with bright line cutting aid off from unfriendly poweres. A recent article on pakistan talked about how we have been concerned about their nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands. We specifically offered to help them design their missile activation key system so that the missiles couldn't fall into or be activated without the proper authorization. They refused (would you really want your "friend" with a bad reputation for doing whatever it wanted in its own interests, helping you secure something they aren't really happy with you having?). So pakistan might be somewhat friendly... but should we cut off that kind of aid if say Iran or North Korea who are overtly hostile would accept it...

Egypt was cited as reciving money to aid its police and military. Stability is probably not a bad goal and is probably more important in the calculation of previous foreign policy than democracy which is why we've supported dictators, but when our dollars go to pay police and military and build institutions in unfriendly countries... that seems less than ideal even in the name of stability...


http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/ ... ab-nations

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