American foreign aid and its consequences on human rights protection in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Why does an increase in foreign aid from the United States appear to correlate with a rise in human rights abuses in recipient countries, Salvador Santino Fulo Regilme of Leiden University asks. In a forthcoming book, he argues that in Southeast Asia the converging interests of donor and recipient, together with the domestic legitimacy of the beneficiary government, primarily shape the purposes and political consequences of foreign-aid programs. Those shared interests, in turn, affect the magnitude and scope of repression in aid-receiving states.