A form of giving or taking? An empirical analysis of the political and economic determinants of United States' security aid allocation to Pakistan and Indonesia

• Main Author: Pactao, Aileen Joy A.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Security Assistance Program; Economic assistance, American; United States—Foreign relations—Pakistan; United States—Foreign relations—Indonesia; September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001; International Relations; Political Science
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/7153
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study is an empirical investigation of the political and economic determinants of the United States’ security aid allocation to Pakistan and Indonesia during post-9/11 terrorist attacks. Specifically, the goal of this project is to know the factors affecting the determination of the volume of US security assistance to Pakistan and Indonesia: is it a function of donor’s interests as the foreign policy model of bilateral aid allocation argues? Or is it largely determined by the recipient interests as the idealist paradigm claims?As such, this study revolves on validating or confirming the arguments provided by the Foreign Policy Model of Bilateral Aid Allocation using quantitative techniques such as descriptive statistics and T-test (two- tailed), and qualitative methods like comprehensive literature review and thematic analysis. The results indicate that (a) the pattern of the volume of security aid allocation of the United States to Pakistan and Indonesia during post-9/11 attacks has never been in sustained harmonious ones; (b) there is a statistical probability that the relationships of the identified political determinants of aid allocation such as ideological stance, strategic importance, regime stability, and human rights index to the volume of security aid support of the United States to Pakistan and Indonesia exist and are not due to chances, (c) similarly, economic determinants provided by the foreign policy model of aid allocation as well as relevant studies such as trade relation, investment, domestic savings, and per capita GDP are found to have significantly covaried with the US volume of security assistance to Pakistan and Indonesia; (d) the volume of US security aid allocation is also a function of its security and threats perceptions; and, (e) security aid relationships of the United States to Pakistan and Indonesia do not imply one-sided dependency because this study reveals that the United States is also dependent on the recipients in the realization of its various goals or interests.