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Jump to Overview Sections:
>> 50 years of development gains >> Promoting democratic governance >> Driving economic growth >> Improving people's health >> Mitigating and managing conflict >> Providing humanitarian assistance >> The full measure of U.S. development assistance-official and private >> Notes >> Background papers >> References
These circumstances entrench poverty, nurture injustice, and fuel anger
and alienation. People give up on the possibility of collective progress.
In different countries and among different types of people, hopes for
development are surrendered in different ways. The surrender may be
in crime toward other individuals or in hate and violence toward other
ethnic groups. It may be toward the state, in insurgency or revolution,
or toward the world’s successful countries, in terrorism. The response may simply
be to emigrate or flee. Most often, the powerless and suffering simply
withdraw from the state and survive as best they can from one day to
the next. But surviving on the edge of existence only exposes people
to catastrophe when nature or politics takes a downward turn. Even when
failing states do not directly threaten the United States, they are
humanitarian disasters waiting to happen. Only when countries achieve
sustained development can they move beyond a chronic vulnerability to crisis.
Preempting threats and disasters is not the only reason that fostering
development is in the U.S. interest. Successful development abroad generates
diffuse benefits. It opens new, more dynamic markets for U.S. goods
and services. It generates more secure, promising environments for U.S.
investment. It creates zones of order and peace where Americans can
travel, study, exchange, and do business safely. And it produces allies—
countries that share U.S. commitments to economic openness, political
freedom, and the rule of law.
Almost all countries with high levels of economic and social development
are democracies. Why? Because lawful, accountable, participatory government
fosters development—and because prosperous, well-educated people
demand political freedom. No two full democracies have ever fought a
war with one another. The spread of prosperity and democracy is an important
foundation for peace. A free, open, prosperous, lawful world is the
kind of world Americans want to live in.
A world where all countries are becoming more prosperous would also
be a profound affirmation of U.S. values and ideals. The United States
is a nation of immigrants who believe that with energy, ideas, and initiative,
anyone can succeed. Americans want to believe that for countries as
well as people, progress should not be limited by region or culture,
and that the country’s founding principles affirming life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness are universal. For the United States to
prosper and be secure, the world must prosper and be secure. Thus the United States must foster development around
the world.
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