With direct foreign aid from the federal government totaling in the billions for 2002, it is clear it is a cornerstone for the implementation of many U.S. foreign policy initiatives.
Just as effective has been the withholding of foreign aid, coinciding with the use of sanctions to force other countries to accept the United States' global agenda according to UW-Madison political science Professor Michael Barnett.
Barnett said the United States is now using its economic bulk to grease the wheels of international cooperation for a possible attack on Afghanistan and the war on terrorism.
'People don't like it when we beat them up,' he said. 'It's like my grandmother always said, 'It's easier to attract bees with honey than with vinegar.''
Pakistan has received most of the honey so far. President Bush lifted economic sanctions from India and Pakistan earlier this week. Known as the Pressler Amendment, the sanction was imposed in 1990 on both countries when the United States discovered they were in the process of developing nuclear arsenals. From 1948 to 1990, Pakistan received $7.9 billion of direct assistance from the United States. India received more than $123 million last year alone.
Without the sanction in place, the United States is now free to approve an International Monetary Fund loan of $136 million for Pakistan, said State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher in a Sept. 24 press conference.
'The [sanctions] required U.S. opposition to lending by international financial institutions for purposes other than basic human needs,' he said.
Bush has also asked Congress to repeal a sanction against Pakistan brought on by the 1999 military coup of its democratic government. Unlike other sanctions, which Bush could remove by presidential decree, this can only be repealed through the legislative process.
The United States planned on removing the nuclear-based sanctions sometime in the future but recent events pushed up its priority, according to a State Department official.
'Sanctions were no longer an effective means to pursue our national goals,' the department official said.
Boucher said the removal of sanctions will be a stepping stone for future relations with Pakistan.
'We think it's an important step forward in being able to pursue out goals with Pakistan, to be able to support Pakistan and to cooperate more easily with Pakistan in the fight against terrorism,' he said.
The United States will attempt to help other countries in a cohesive effort to wipe terrorism off the face of the earth, according to Boucher.
'We intend to support those who support us. We intend to work with those governments that work with us in this fight,' Boucher said. 'We will join together, and we will fight each other's fight.'
Boucher qualified that statement in regards to China which suffers from similar sanctions as Pakistan.
'There are cases where there are, for example, the missile-export sanctions, which applied to entities in both China and Pakistan. Those have not been waived. So we have different relationships with different governments,' he said.
Barnett said Pakistan and other countries should be wary of U.S. advances.
'We're a fickle friend,' he said. 'The nice thing about being a super power is you can do things capriciously. The moment we don't need them we toss them aside.'
According to Barnett, the situation is similar to the Cold War, during which the United States supported many dictatorial governments in an attempt to stifle any communist uprisings.
'On one hand you're trying to align with a number of Islamic countries against Afghan-istan,' he said. 'On the downside, of course, is you end up propping up authoritarian regimes.'
Barnett went on to say that this fight against terrorism is omnipresent on the minds of the American people and that sacrifices, both physical and ideological, would have to be made to have a victorious outcome.
'If the most important battle to be fought is the [one against Afghanistan], you have to make a few pacts with the devil,' he said.
