‘No Free Lunches’ and Their Efficacy Analyzing the Role of Foreign Aid in US Foreign Policy

Foreign aid is often equated with the ‘no free lunch' aphorism by many which means nothing comes for free, not even the aid money or commodities that apparently seems to be a manifestation of the spirit of benevolence or charity. Most of the time, the donor countries' strategic, economic, political or other interests play a predominant role under the cover of humanity or benevolence in the practice of foreign aid Hannan and Alam, 2019 . This paper aims to critically analyze how foreign aid works as a leverage for the USA in achieving its foreign policy objectives. Conducted in a qualitative manner, it is based on finding answers to the question how political, economic and strategic interests of the USA works behind offering foreign aid. To find the answer, the rational choice theory, the definition of foreign aid provided by the Development Assistance Committee DAC of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD and the notion of ‘soft power' given by Joseph Nye have been adopted and their applications have been examined. In this process, several critical areas have also been highlighted and connected. And finally, on the basis of the findings conclusion has been drawn up. Md. Abdul Hannan "‘No Free Lunches' and Their Efficacy: Analyzing the Role of Foreign Aid in US Foreign Policy" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-5 , August 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd31683.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/other/31683/‘no-free-lunches'-and-their-efficacy-analyzing-the-role-of-foreign-aid-in-us-foreign-policy/md-abdul-hannan