I.

Introduction

Foreign Aid, military or economic assistance that one country gives to help another. Many countries give foreign aid, including Japan, Great Britain, and the United States.

Foreign aid can take many forms, including donations of money, goods, services, and technical expertise. Foreign aid can be bilateral, which means it is given by one country to another. It can also be multilateral—that is, given by a group of countries. The term foreign aid is also sometimes used to describe assistance given to a country by a private organization in another country.

Countries give foreign aid for humanitarian reasons and to advance their own foreign policy objectives. Countries provide money, food, and other services to help meet basic human needs such as feeding the poor, and assisting with economic development. Countries also give military and economic aid to provide better security for another country against external threats and to promote a closer working relationship with that country.

The United States became the largest contributor of foreign aid in the world after World War II ended in 1945. However, as a percentage of gross national income (GNI), the amount that the United States contributed declined significantly after the end of the Cold War. Political support for foreign development aid, in particular, has diminished over the years. The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, and the tsunami disaster that struck nations bordering the Indian Ocean in 2004 stimulated some increases in U.S. aid. The rest of this article focuses on foreign aid provided by the United States.