International Development Cooperation: US Policies

ISSN 1019-3316, Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2022, Vol. 92, Suppl. 15, pp. S1390–S1396. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2022. Russian Text © The Author(s), 2022, published in SShA & Kanada: Ekonomika, Politika, Kul’tura, 2022, No. 10, pp. 56–71. International Development Cooperation: US Policies M. Yu. Beletskaya (ORCID: 0000-0003-3141-6052) Arbatov Institute for US and Canada Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 121069 Russia e-mail: Received June 21, 2022; revised July 12, 2022; accepted July 14, 2022 Abstract—International development aid in the format of economic assistance is a significant component of the global political and economic strategy of the United States, which has been and remains the world leader in terms of providing economic development aid. This aid is used, first and foremost, to achieve the country’s national interests; however, with the advent of each new president, an adjustment takes place that changes the volumes, directions, and formats of assistance. This work is dedicated to examining US policies in the field of international cooperation for development. The issues of participation in this system and the evolution of the philosophy, goals and directions of assistance provided by the United States are considered. General issues of the development of the assistance system are touched upon. The period of Donald Trump’s presidency is considered in detail, including the interaction of his administration with legislators, as well as the transformation that took place in the field of development assistance with the advent of Joseph Biden. Based on a comparison of data on budget requests and decisions made on financing international assistance, the main conclusions about the inertia of the American development assistance system are formulated. Keywords: United States, international development aid, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Democrats, Republicans DOI: 10.1134/S1019331622210043 Biden, include V.I. Bartenev (2018, 2019, and 2022) and A.A. Davydov (2018). INTRODUCTION The global political and economic strategy of the United States in the new geopolitical realities consists of a number of components, one of which is the promotion of international development in the format of economic assistance. In terms of its volume, the United States still remains the world leader and uses it to achieve its national interests; each president adjusts and changes the volumes, directions, and formats of assistance based on their views on international development and the role of the United States in this process. This work is devoted to the peculiarities of approaches to economic assistance implemented during the presidency of Donald Trump and the transformation that took place in this area with the advent of Joseph Biden; general issues of the development of the assistance system are touched upon. Numerous scientific works, primarily by American authors, are devoted to the topic. Speaking about the Trump presidency, the focus of research has shifted to the negative consequences for the US international aid system associated with his initiatives (Harris et al., 2017). In general, Trump’s election campaign and rise to power initiated numerous proposals to modernize the American aid system (Ingram, 2017). Russian authors working on issues of US international assistance, including during the presidencies of Trump and SYSTEM OF INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE AND ITS PRINCIPLES International economic assistance is a multifaceted phenomenon in global economic policy. Throughout its existence, the system has been formed and developed along with changes in the world political structure and economy. Experts identify different periods of formation and development of the assistance system (Their and Alexander, 2019; Mateo, 2020; Zaremba, 2019) [1]; however, in a generalized form, it can be argued that it has gone through four stages. First is the initial period after the World War II, when the modern system was born. At this time, its goal was to contribute to the restoration of Europe. Second is the period from the 1960s to the late 1980s, when development institutions were being formed, including the establishment of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1961) and the change in goals from postwar reconstruction to helping poor countries develop industry and agriculture, as well as defining the category of the least developed countries. The third period began after the end of the Cold War, in 1990. At that time, official aid shifted towards poverty reduction and develop- S1390 INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION ment assistance, with the poorest and most needy countries becoming priority recipients. In addition, significant assistance was provided to postcommunist countries in their transition to a market economy. The fourth period is associated with the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (2000). This can be called the period of solving development problems and global problems. The current stage began in 2015 after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Millennium Development Goals have been replaced by the broader and more comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals. The modern system of international cooperation is based on several basic principles, including the possibility of participation of developed and developing countries and the principles of partnership as the main format for providing assistance and ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the system. At the same time, it should be noted that, if initially the assistance system was built within the framework of the relationship between donor countries and recipient countries, then at the current stage this model is being transformed towards partnership between countries and cooperation for development. In practice, this means that the donor country provides development assistance to the recipient country based more on the interests of the recipient. Of course, the very philosophy of providing assistance, as well as questions about its effectiveness, is still the subject of discussion, despite the fact that the system has been in existence for almost a hundred years. Today, what is referred to as official development assistance (ODA, defined as official concessional financing flows to promote the economic development and welfare of low- and middle-income countries) accounts for more than two-thirds of all external financial flows to the least developed countries. The volume of assistance provided by countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) are constantly growing. In 1960, when aid was first quantified, ODA was less than $40 billion (at 2020 prices). In 2021, international development assistance from official donors hit a record $168 billion. The increase in the volume of official assistance ov (...truncated)