Development, Security, and Aid: Geopolitics and Geoeconomics at the U.S. Agency for International Development

201 Pages·2013·1.53 MB·English

by  Jamey Essex

Development, Security, and Aid
GEOGRAPHIES OF JUSTICE AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Series editors
Deborah Cowen, University of Toronto
Nik Heynen, University of Georgia
Melissa W. Wright, Pennsylvania State University
Advisory board
Sharad Chari, London School of Economics
Bradon Ellem, University of Sydney
Gillian Hart, University of California, Berkeley
Andrew Herod, University of Georgia
Jennifer Hyndman, York University
Larry Knopp, University of Washington, Tacoma
Heidi Nast, DePaul University
Jamie Peck, University of British Columbia
Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York
Laura Pulido, University of Southern California
Paul Routledge, University of Glasgow
Bobby Wilson, University of Alabama
Development, Security,
and Aid
GEOPOLITICS AND GEOECONOMICS AT THE U.S.
AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
JAMEY ESSEX
The University of Georgia Press
Athens and London
© 2013 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www .ugapress .org
All rights reserved
Designed by Walton Harris
Set in Minion Pro by Graphic Composition, Inc., Bogart, Georgia
Printed digitally in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Essex, Jamey, 1977–
Development, security, and aid : geopolitics and geoeconomics
at the U.S. Agency for International Development / Jamey Essex.
p. cm. — (Geographies of justice and social transformation)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 8203- 4247- 4 (hbk. : alk. paper)
isbn- 10: 0- 8203- 4247- 5 (hbk. : alk. paper)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 8203- 4454- 6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn- 10: 0- 8203- 4454- 0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. United States. Agency for International Development. 2. Economic
assistance, American. 3. Geopolitics. 4. Economic geography.
5. United States—Foreign economic relations. 6. United States—Foreign
relations. I. Title.
hc60.e736 2013
338.91'73—dc23
2012024591
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data available
ISBNfordigitaledition:978-08203-4567-3
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations vii
Acknowledgments ix
CHAPTER 1 “One- Half of 1”: Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, and usaid 1
CHAPTER 2 “In the World for Keeps”: From the Marshall Plan to the
Vietnam War 17
CHAPTER 3 Geoeconomics Ascendant: Development, Interdependence,
and Neoliberalization 51
CHAPTER 4 Two Decades of Neoliberalization: From the Cold War to the War
on Terror 84
CHAPTER 5 Development in Reverse: Crisis, Austerity, and the Future
of usaid 129
Notes 159
Works Cited 165
Index 179
This page intentionally left blank
ABBREVIATIONS
cbo Congressional Budget Offi ce
crs Congressional Research Service
dcha Bureau for Democracy, Confl ict, and Humanitarian Assistance
dec Development Experience Clearinghouse
dfa Director of Foreign Assistance
dlf Development Loan Fund
DoD United States Department of Defense
dri Diplomatic Readiness Initiative
eca Economic Cooperation Agency
egat Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade
esf Economic Support Funds
faa Foreign Assistance Act (of 1961, amended)
fas Foreign Agricultural Service
ftf Feed the Future
gao General Accounting Offi ce / Government Accountability Offi ce
(aft er 2004)
gatt General Agreement on Tariff s and Trade
gh Bureau for Global Health
ica International Cooperation Agency
idca International Development Cooperation Agency
imf International Monetary Fund
ldc least developed country
mcc Millennium Challenge Corporation
mdg Millennium Development Goals
ngo nongovernmental organization
nss National Security Strategy of the United States
oco Overseas Contingency Operations
oda offi cial development assistance
opic Overseas Private Investment Corporation
oss Offi ce of Strategic Services
pl 480 Public Law 480 (U.S. food aid program)
ppd Presidential Policy Directive
ppda Peace, Prosperity, and Democracy Act of 1994
pvo private voluntary organization
vii
viii • abbreviations
qddr Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review
rif reduction in force
tcb trade capacity building
usaid United States Agency for International Development
usda United States Department of Agriculture
ustr Offi ce of the United States Trade Representative
wfp World Food Programme
wto World Trade Organization
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the sabbatical application I submitted to my department and dean in August
2010, I stated that my primary sabbatical project for the 2011–2012 academic
year, when I could put aside teaching duties and departmental meetings for
several months to write uninterrupted, would be to complete a book on the
U.S. Agency for International Development. Rather than waiting for my sab-
batical to start, I actually began work on it in late 2010, in order to submit the
manuscript proposal in early 2011. While I had initially envisioned myself sit-
ting down, starting on page 1, and ending on page whatever, in a discrete linear
process with a clear beginning and a defi nitive end, I quickly realized it wasn’t
going to work that way. While I did do the bulk of the writing in summer and
fall 2011, I realized then that the writing process actually began long ago, and
that no work is ever totally and fi nally “fi nished.” I revisited, repurposed, or
revised pieces I wrote several years prior, including not only previously pub-
lished articles that had appeared in Geoforum and Antipode, but also portions
of my PhD dissertation, which I completed in 2005 in Syracuse University’s
Department of Geography. I even found myself digging out notebooks from
my dissertation research, full of quotations copied from microfi che that I had
spent hours staring at in the Science, Industry, and Business Library branch of
the New York Public Library. I returned to government documents and reports,
congressional hearings, and interview transcripts that I had already read nu-
merous times before, and I found silences, gaps, and missing pieces that I had
overlooked or not uncovered in past research. I also discovered, somewhat to
my astonishment, that I actually enjoy reading grainy, decades- old government
reports with handwritten notes scrawled across their margins and scanned so
that they appear on the computer screen at a slightly oblique angle.
Having now more or less completed the book, I am reminded of all those
who assisted and supported me in past research and writing that made its way
into this volume, and I am thankful to all who helped me as I worked out new
ideas, arguments, and written material. First, I am grateful to my institution, the
University of Windsor, and my faculty union, the Windsor University Faculty
Association, for the opportunity provided by the sabbatical I enjoyed during
the 2011–2012 academic year. Without the time away from teaching and service
work this sabbatical provided, I could not have contributed the kind of focused
time and energy it took to write this book. The university also provided support
ix