Teleios Research Estimates Government Aid to Persecuted Countries

PRLOG ^ | August 14, 2018 | William C. Stewart

[Teleios Research]

We evaluated the amount of United States government aid (total and military) as well as trade policy with the top 50 countries on the Open Doors persecution of Christians list website (https://www.opendoorsusa.org/2018-world-watch-list-report/).

The primary source noted of persecution in each country in the Open Doors list was: Islamic oppression (n=33), dictatorial paranoia (n=6), religious nationalism* (n=5), communist and post-communist oppression (n=4), or organized crime and corruption (n=2).

We used the Office of the United States Trade Representative website (https://ustr.gov/) and the US Agency of International Development website (https://www.usaid.gov/) as the primary sources of information supplemented by Google searches. We collected: country, trade with US ($), total US aid ($), US foreign military financing ($), trade restrictions (i.e., no trade, no trade allowed, some trade allowed), religious persecution-based restrictions (yes/no), restrictions (reason), and religious policies toward (yes/no).

This study found that all of the top 50 countries persecuting Christians received United States aid averaging $516,150,450 per year, of which $201,174,780 was military support. The lowest level of funding was to Bhutan at $18,000 and the highest was just over $5 billion separately to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine.

Of the 50 countries, there were no observable trade restrictions in 36, limited restrictions in 12 and no trade allowed in two. The trade restrictions were enacted in the 14 countries for a variety of reasons, the most common being corruption (n=4). In no instance was persecution of Christians a reason for restricting trade. The United States government had met with 20 of the offending countries to discuss their need for better religious tolerance.

[Teleios Research]

This study suggests that the existence of Christian persecution, or religious persecution generally, did not affect United States general or military aid or influence trade policy. The government does discuss the need for better tolerance of religion in some cases, but it does not appear to affect public policy.