USAID and its role in the Middle East

Abstract

This study analyzes the historical and political role of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) since its establishment in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy, within the broader context of the Cold War and the transformations of U.S. foreign policy. The research highlights USAID’s function as a soft power tool, revealing how its seemingly developmental mission often served strategic geopolitical interests, particularly in the Middle East. It examines the agency’s operational mechanisms and patterns of intervention in countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, and Tunisia, and traces the evolution of its policies under successive U.S. administrations, culminating in the Trump era, which marked a significant shift toward politically conditioned aid. The study also explores cases of politicization and corruption linked to USAID programs and supports its findings with evidence from official archives, presidential records, congressional reports, and regional research centers. Methodologically, the research adopts a historical-analytical approach, relying on both primary sources and scholarly literature to assess the agency’s impact on U.S.–Arab.

This aid, despite its humanitarian veneer, proved to be based on a precise equation: "support in exchange for dependency" and "funding in exchange for political alignment." This was clearly demonstrated in the support given to regimes like the Shah of Iran, the Green Revolution in India, and Egypt's post-Camp David projects. Thus, the logic that development is not merely a service, but a means of reshaping societies and systems according to American economic and political values, became deeply ingrained in the agency's structure.