To truly understand the dynamics of U.S. foreign aid, the term ’empire’ can feel inadequate. A more precise concept is the ‘Aid Imperium,’ which describes the unequal and hierarchical power relationship through which a dominant state, like the United States, uses foreign strategic assistance to shape the politics, norms, and resource distribution of subordinate states. This imperium is not a one-way street of control but a complex, mutually reinforcing system.
Table of Contents
👑 Beyond Empire: Defining the Aid Imperium
The term ‘imperium’ is used instead of ’empire’ to reject the idea of a simple, one-way form of control by a ruler over a ruled subject. The aid imperium refers to both the territorial (militaristic and geostrategic) and non-territorial (diplomatic, economic, and cultural) practices of American power. It is an unequal power relation, but one where the recipient state has agency and actively participates. It is a system built on a ‘stratificatory differentiation’—a hierarchy of unequal and differentiated relationships that defines contemporary world politics.
🤝 A Mutually Reinforcing Relationship
The aid imperium is a dialogical relationship, though an asymmetrical one. The U.S., as the supplier, provides foreign strategic support to reconfigure aspects of a recipient country to align with its own perceived strategic interests. On the demand side, however, recipient governments are not passive. Influential leaders and elites within these subordinate countries use the aid to assert their own interests and strengthen their domestic legitimacy. The imperium works because it allows the U.S. to project its interests while also allowing local elites to consolidate their own power.
🕊️ Humanitarianism and Domination
A key feature of the American aid imperium is how it legitimizes itself. Unequal power relations are transformed into ‘gestures of generosity and gratitude’. The logic of domination is underwritten by the language of humanitarianism, philanthropy, and mutual benefit. Even during militaristic periods like the ‘War on Terror,’ civilian development projects are often subsumed under security goals, with aid for infrastructure being redirected to regions where military operations require them. This transforms a crude assertion of power into a seemingly benevolent intervention.
—
Regilme, Salvador Santino F., Jr. Aid Imperium: United States Foreign Policy and Human Rights in Post-Cold War Southeast Asia. University of Michigan Press, 2021.
More Topics
- What is ‘Strategic Localization’ and How Does It Work in Foreign Aid?
- How a Culture of Impunity Fuels Human Rights Abuses
- How the Philippines Reversed Its Human Rights Crisis Under Aquino and Obama
- How Thailand’s 1990s ‘Human Rights Renaissance’ Happened
- How Thaksin’s ‘War on Drugs’ Devastated Human Rights in Thailand
- How ‘Interest Convergence’ Shapes Foreign Aid’s Impact on Human Rights
- How the Philippines Achieved a Human Rights Renaissance in the 1990s
