AIDS, Empire and the US Politics of Giving

This essay explores the intersection of US Empire on HIV/AIDS policies and the politics of "gifting." It does so from an analysis of several key US initiatives: the Project for a New American Century, the US National Security Strategy, and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. History provides numerous examples where US international aid places expectations on the recipient with enormous consequences accrued to the giver--the contemporary time is no exception. Gifting, an especially powerful tool of US hegemony, is a means of social control, reflects power relations, and socialises the receiver by transmitting a set of expectations and values which bolster US ideology. US foreign policies, including those related to HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS education, are directly influenced by these three initiatives which are woven together to construct a new "American internationalism." (Contains 2 notes.)