Proceedings of The 2nd International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences
Year: 2019
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/2nd.icarss.2019.11.735
The Transformation of The Us Foreign Aid within Southeast Asia: An Analysis Before, During, and After The Cold War
Bagas Adhika Putra
ABSTRACT:
Due to the dissemination of democratic philosophy in the mostly-developing ten Southeast Asian nations following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States has been aggressively applying long-term commitments to address and endorse the issue of democratization by granting or loaning financial aid to local governments, non-governmental organizations, and other politically-strategic groups. This research aims to explain the development of US foreign aid in Southeast Asia prior, during and following the Cold War by utilizing qualitative historical discourse as well as its impact on the region’s democratization. The qualitative historical research reveals that in the past, American foreign policy implemented in Asian countries contributed to the internal instability of most Southeast Asian countries during the Cold War. The Cold-War era policies in Asia tended to support autocratic, oppressive, militaristic regimes to combat communist ideology. There are strong correlations between American Post-Cold War democracy aid and the reduction of civil war outbreak, which renders the hypothesis that the disbursement of US Democracy Aid helps to reduce the civil disharmony in democratizing Southeast Asian countries after the Cold War. The conclusive outcome from this thesis concerns about the ongoing aid-giving practices and the potential policy-making promotion in the foreseeable future for the US.
Keywords: democratization, Southeast Asia, foreign aid, USAID.