Ordering Information
Cloth Text,
250 pages
978-0-8157-7556-0,
28.95
American foreign policy needs a new playbook. Trapped in an outdated cold war mindset, Washington continues to forge alliances with dictators who do not share its values of freedom and democracy. America is once again backing authoritarian regimes that oppress their citizens and plunder resources—this time in the name of global stability and the war on terror. The unfortunate result is a legacy that engenders resentment and distrust among the developing world’s populations.
In Alliance Curse, Hilton Root illustrates how misguided foreign aid policy can backfire, stunting rather than advancing political and economic development, and poisoning relations instead of capturing hearts and minds. Partnering with dictators can produce perverse disincentives for those regimes to govern for prosperity, resulting in corruption, economic failure, and instability. These policies contradict America’s image as the champion of freedom and democracy, making the developing world even more wary of its intentions.
Why does this self-defeating tendency continue? U.S. policymakers find that the demands of their constituents—security, affordable raw materials, access to markets—are most easily accomplished by cutting deals with autocrats. Democracies, even poor ones, are less likely to exchange policy concessions for aid. Accordingly, the most corrupt low-income countries, those generally under autocratic rule, receive the bulk of U.S. bilateral assistance. But the ill effects of this trade-off can linger for generations. The linkage of U.S. aid to oppressive regimes erodes goodwill toward America among indignant populations. And when the foreign assistance dries up—as it invariably does—the dictators themselves frequently turn on America and end their cooperation. It is no wonder then that the United States faces major foreign policy dilemmas in the very countries that were major recipients of aid.
Root buttresses his analysis with real-world case studies, concluding with recommendations designed to close the gap between security and economic development. His work belies conventional wisdom that distinguishes between long-term global development and short-term U.S. security. Indeed, the long term is quite relevant, he argues, and to overlook that fact would be a tragic mistake.
Selected Reviews
“Root’s prescriptions for American foreign policy—less focus on military security, more on economic development and social reform—are well-grounded and compelling"
Publishers Weekly
"Hilton Root has written a brilliant and provocative book on the unintended—though logical—consequences of American interventions in the developing world. His penetrating analysis provides a sobering but valuable lesson on how to avoid repeating similar mistakes in the future."
Minxin Pei,
Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
"Alliance Curse provides a needed rethinking of the cold war legacy by which the United States supported a series of autocratic regimes in the developing world. It is only now that we can understand the full long-term costs of these alliances, and the way that they harmed U.S. interests in the post-cold war world. Hilton Root has provided a valuable service in demonstrating how American ideals and interests should have been more closely aligned. "
Francis Fukuyama,
author of "America at the Crossroads"
"A powerful argument that U.S. alliances and foreign aid curse and corrupt developing country governments no less than the proverbial ‘resource curse.’ Drawing lessons from the cold war and East Asia’s development success, Root crafts a counterterrorism strategy that balances market incentives to accelerate development with smart investments in agriculture, housing, health, and education to reduce inequality"
Henry Nau,
George Washington University
"In this timely and provocative analysis, Hilton Root exposes the costs to human welfare and our real national interest of America's cold war practice: unconditionally embracing corrupt authoritarian regimes as client states. Unless we break this ‘alliance curse,’ we will continue to betray our principles and embitter societies whose cooperation we need for our long-run security. Root's message is clear and compelling: we must reshape our foreign policy and foreign aid if we are to avoid repeating the mistakes of the cold war. "
Larry Diamond,
Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
"This is not just another exercise in second-guessing with 20–20 hindsight. Building on a very creative, powerful, policy framework, Hilton Root is able to move ahead and make a series of compelling arguments for a whole new approach to U.S. policymaking. Clearly a lot of people in Washington will not like what he has to say, but hopefully future policymakers will find his assessment required reading. I can see this book becoming the foundation of a new conventional wisdom for U.S. policies toward the developing world."
Robert Looney,
Naval Postgraduate School