Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan is an important topic for global studies because it provides a model for global aid and for funding international nongovernmental organizations in global civil society. The Marshall Plan was a way of providing American funds for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II, but it also influenced the development of global economic projects and agencies, and it could well be used as a model for global partnerships in international aid.

The Marshall Plan was arguably the most successful development assistance program in history, and much can be learned from it about issues of foreign aid and Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). Some of its basic principles could be applied more broadly, and its basic ideas might well be revived as they are extremely effective but have not been employed in many programs of development assistance.

The Marshall Plan (known officially as the European Recovery Program) was the primary plan of the United States for rebuilding the devastated countries of Europe and, at the same time, stopping the advance of communism from the Soviet Union after World War II. The reconstruction plan was introduced at a meeting of the participating European states, and it was formally established on July 12, 1947. The Marshall Plan offered the same aid to the USSR and its allies, but they did not accept it because of its rejection by Stalin. The plan was in operation for 4 years, beginning in July 1947. During that period, some US$13 billion in economic and technical assistance was given to help the recovery of the European countries that had joined the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), an organization that that later evolved into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

By the time the Marshall Plan had come to completion, the economy of every participant state, other than Germany, had grown well past their prewar levels, and, over the following decades, many regions of western Europe enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth and prosperity. The plan was therefore seen as a great success. The Marshall Plan was also one of the first elements of European economic and political integration, as it eliminated tariff barriers and set up institutions to coordinate the European economies.

The long-forgotten architect of the Marshall Plan was William L. Clayton, a U.S. assistant secretary of state, who developed it, along with George F. Kennan, in 1947. Clayton was also the architect of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which eventually evolved into the World Trade Organization. Secretary of State General George C. Marshall unveiled the plan in his Harvard commencement address in June 1947, and it was named for him, but Clayton was the one who designed it.

Given the success of the original Marshall Plan, which helped the nations of Europe recover after the devastation of World War II, a new Marshall Plan has been suggested dozens of times: for Africa, for central Asia, for South America and Central America, for the former Soviet Union, for [Page 1123]inner cities, for relief from tsunamis and hurricanes, and so on; none has been realized. At the same time, existing programs of foreign aid and ODA have been of questionable effectiveness. For example, many of these programs in developing nations have been riddled with problems, a major problem being the fact that much of the assistance has been siphoned off by the leaders of developing nations such as Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire and Charles Taylor in Liberia, who built up offshore bank accounts in the billions of dollars.

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