The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics

by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

This example, while extremely simple, captures the logic of cold war aid flows. The United States provided Liberia’s Sergeant Doe with an average of $50 million per year in exchange for his anti-Soviet stance. This aid did not provide for the welfare of his people, and is coincidentally close to the amount of money Doe and his cronies are alleged to have stolen during his decade in power. From the perspective of survival-oriented leaders, the rationale for aid becomes clear. When the cold war ended, the United States no longer valued anti-Soviet policies and was no longer willing to pay for them. Doe’s government didn’t have much else to offer the United States that American voters valued, so he was cut off.