This paper investigates why donor countries/institutions provide foreign aid to South Asian countries, in particular, US foreign aid to Pakistan, and how foreign aids impacts on internal politics of a recipient country based on donor’s development strategy, and how US foreign aid on counterterrorism policies in Pakistan. This study also focused on examining how US foreign aid policy changed and shifted towards South Asia after 9/11 terrorist attacks on USA, and how South Asia became a primary recipient of US foreign aid. This study explored that foreign aid’s primary focus was military and security-oriented objectives instead of economic development in the recipient country. Additionally, the investigation also revealed that US foreign aid also affected Pakistan’s internal politics as it allocated more support to security-oriented purposes to strengthen military rule in the political economy to reduce the effects of terrorism in Pakistan. However, Pakistan faced greater economic destruction and human losses after joining the US alliance for “War on Terror.”
Keywords: Aid Philosophy, Pakistan, Security and economic aid, Strategic Tool, US, the war on terror