6.4.5.4 Political Payments for Foreign Policy
The use of political payments for foreign policy can be intended to support the recipients or to disrupt their politics.
Governments, organisations and wealthy individuals anywhere in the world can use money to influence what happens elsewhere. It can be classified as a political use of economic power – which damages the economies of all the countries involved, as described earlier (3.3.7.2). American programmes of this nature are in the public domain, but Russia influence has been more secretive:
● As described earlier (6.2.4.4), American foreign policy has included a neoconservative belief in spreading democracy. The Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal in December 2021 announced “a landmark set of policy and foreign assistance initiatives that build upon the U.S. Government’s significant, ongoing work to bolster democracy and defend human rights globally”.
● As reported in a Guardian article, Tech giants face Congress as showdown over Russia election meddling looms, Facebook, Twitter and Google were all used as covert channels to influence the 2016 US Presidential election: “All three companies have admitted that Russian entities bought ads on their sites in an effort to skew the vote.”
● Russian influence in French politics was widely reported. A BBC article, Marine Le Pen: Who’s funding France’s far right?, reported that: “Some believe the €9m loan, which was made later that year, was indeed a reward for Ms Le Pen’s support over Crimea.”
Coercion in foreign affairs mostly has adverse political consequences, as argued later in this chapter (6.7.7.1).
This page is intended to form part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. An archived copy of it is held at https://www.patternsofpower.org/edition04/6454b.htm.