Global Compassion : Private Voluntary Organizations and U.S. Foreign Policy Since 1939

Aid organizations like Oxfam, CARE, World Vision, and Catholic Relief Services are known the world over. However, little is known about the relationship between these private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and the federal government, and how truly influential these organizations can be in the realm of foreign policy. Indeed since the end of the Second World War, humanitarian aid has become a key component of U.S. foreign policy and has grown steadily ever since. This history of interaction deflates the common claim that PVOs have been independent from the federal government, and that this independence has only recently been threatened. Global Compassion is the first truly comprehensive study of PVOs and their complex, often-fraught interaction with the federal government. Rachel McCleary provides an ambitious analysis of the relationship between the two from 1939 to 2005. The book focuses on the work of PVOs from a foreign policy perspective, revealing how federal political pressures shape the field of international relief. McCleary draws on a new and one-of-a-kind data set on the revenue of private voluntary agencies, employing annual reports, State Department documents, and I.R.S. records, to assess the extent to which international relief and development work is becoming a commercial activity. She outlines the increasing financial dependence of these organizations on the federal government and the consequences of that dependency for various types of agencies, as well as the often competing goals of the federal government and religious PVOs. As a result, there is a continuing trend of decreasing federal funds to PVOs and of simultaneously increasing awards to commercial enterprises. Focusing on the interplay between public and private revenue, the discussion ends with the commercialization of foreign aid and the factors most likely to influence the future of PVOs in international relief and development. In this thought-provoking and rigorously researched work, Rachel McCleary offers a unique, substantive look at an understudied area of U.S. foreign policy and international development, and provides a crucial analysis of what this relationship holds for the future. Contents......Page 10 List of Figures......Page 14 List of Tables......Page 16 1. Dispelling Common Perceptions......Page 20 Questions and Issues......Page 23 Overview of the Data Set......Page 26 Trends in PVOs, 1939–2005......Page 33 Points of Contention between PVOs and the Federal Government......Page 46 2. World War II: U.S. Federal Government Consolidation and Regulation of Humanitarian Assistance, 1939–45......Page 53 American Neutrality, 1939–41......Page 55 America at War, 1941–43......Page 57 Consolidating the War Relief Effort, 1943–45......Page 66 Comparison of Religious and Secular Agencies......Page 70 From Relief to Reconstruction......Page 76 3. The Beginning of the Cold War and the Promotion of Economic Development, 1946–59......Page 77 The Rise and Fall of the Ethnically Oriented PVOs......Page 78 Government-PVO Coordination and Cooperation, 1946–48......Page 79 Coordinating Jewish Fund-Raising......Page 88 Containment and Reconstruction, 1948–54......Page 90 The Cold War and the Rise of Catholic Relief Services......Page 91 Continuing the Pattern of Relief Aid......Page 97 4. The Internationalization of American Aid......Page 100 Breakdown of Secular PVOs by Subtype......Page 101 Permanent Humanitarian Uses of Food......Page 103 Population Control and Food Production......Page 107 PVO Neutrality and the Vietnam War......Page 109 Protestant PVOs and the Rise of Evangelicals......Page 111 The Security of Israel and Jewish PVOs......Page 115 PVOs and the Secularizing of American Society......Page 116 5. The Golden Age of PVO-State Relations......Page 120 The PVO-State Partnership......Page 122 The Ethiopian Famine and the Maturation of the PVOs......Page 126 PVOs as Policy Advocates......Page 127 PVOs as Transnational Agencies......Page 130 Religious Agencies......Page 135 From Relief to Development......Page 138 Shift in Foreign Aid Trends......Page 140 The Political Maturation of PVOs......Page 149 Division among the Evangelicals......Page 150 Central America and “Low-Intensity Conflict”......Page 153 P.L. 480 and the Quasi-Governmental PVO......Page 154 The Parallel Humanitarian Role of the U.S. Military......Page 155 Sustainable Development......Page 156 7. The Commercialization of Foreign Aid......Page 159 “Reforming” USAID and the Loss of Competitiveness......Page 161 Commercialization of Aid......Page 163 How to Implement Aid......Page 165 National Security and Foreign Aid......Page 169 The Evolving Role of the Military......Page 171 Disbanding the PVO Club......Page 173 Transformational Development......Page 176 Foreign Assistance Reform......Page 178 Food Aid......Page 181 The Future of Foreign Aid......Page 182 C......Page 186 D......Page 187 I......Page 188 M......Page 189 P......Page 190 T......Page 191 V......Page 192 Notes......Page 194 Bibliography......Page 222 A......Page 242 C......Page 243 F......Page 245 H......Page 246 K......Page 247 N......Page 248 P......Page 249 R......Page 250 T......Page 251 V......Page 252 Y......Page 253

Aid organizations like Oxfam, CARE, World Vision, and Catholic Relief Services are known the world over. However, little is known about the relationship between these private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and the federal government, and how truly influential these organizations can be in the realm of foreign policy. Indeed since the end of the Second World War, humanitarian aid has become a key component of U.S. foreign policy and has grown steadily ever since. This history of interaction deflates the common claim that PVOs have been independent from the federal government, and that this independence has only recently been threatened.

Global Compassion is the first truly comprehensive study of PVOs and their complex, often-fraught interaction with the federal government. Rachel McCleary provides an ambitious analysis of the relationship between the two from 1939 to 2005. The book focuses on the work of PVOs from a foreign policy perspective, revealing how federal political pressures shape the field of international relief. McCleary draws on a new and one-of-a-kind data set on the revenue of private voluntary agencies, employing annual reports, State Department documents, and I.R.S. records, to assess the extent to which international relief and development work is becoming a commercial activity. She outlines the increasing financial dependence of these organizations on the federal government and the consequences of that dependency for various types of agencies, as well as the often competing goals of the federal government and religious PVOs. As a result, there is a continuing trend of decreasing federal funds to PVOs and of simultaneously increasing awards to commercial enterprises. Focusing on the interplay between public and private revenue, the discussion ends with the commercialization of foreign aid and the factors most likely to influence the future of PVOs in international relief and development.

In this thought-provoking and rigorously researched work, Rachel McCleary offers a unique, substantive look at an understudied area of U.S. foreign policy and international development, and provides a crucial analysis of what this relationship holds for the future.

'Global Compassion' is an account of the relationship between private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and the US federal government from 1939-2005. The book focuses on the work of PVOs from a foreign policy perspective, revealing how federal political pressures shape the field of international relief