Publication Date
Spring 2025
Abstract
This paper examines the implications of the United States’ withdrawal of USAID development funding from Morocco, analyzing how this decision reflects broader U.S. foreign policy priorities and impacts the viability of Moroccan civil society organizations. Despite official rhetoric centered on democracy promotion and human rights, U.S. policy in Morocco has consistently privileged strategic and regional interests—particularly military cooperation and counterterrorism—over long-term democratic development. Using interviews with Moroccan NGO staff, along with analysis of USAID history, policy documents, and secondary scholarship, this study demonstrates how the loss of USAID funding may disrupt civil society networks, undermine sustainable development programs, and narrow the operational space for NGOs engaged in rights-based advocacy. This research builds on Jason Brownlee’s theory of “democracy prevention.” It contributes to broader critiques of Western aid regimes in the MENA region, arguing that U.S. engagement in Morocco has been instrumental in maintaining authoritarian governance under the guise of reform. By tracing the material and political consequences of aid withdrawal, the study reveals the tensions inherent in donor-state relationships. It raises critical questions about the future of civil society under conditions of shrinking international support, which has been overhauled entirely under the current U.S. administration. The conclusions demonstrate the need to reassess foreign aid frameworks that claim to support democratization while enabling regimes to constrain local actors and limit political transformation. U.S. aid to Morocco helped to entrench authoritarianism through a relationship of leverage and linkage not based on human rights, but the undoing of USAID will only further exacerbate the already existent challenges faced by civil society organizations in opposition to regime policy. The findings in this paper suggest that under the Trump administration, democratization efforts continue on a path of marked de-prioritization as strategic interests increasingly eclipsed even the rhetorical support for political reform.
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Halperin, Madelyn, "Instrumentalizing Aid: U.S. Foreign Policy, Civil Society, and Democracy Prevention in Morocco" (2025). Morocco: Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Transformation. 9.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/mor2/9