Abstract
In March 2002 President Bush announced the creation of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). Under the MCA, only countries that govern justly, invest in their people, and open their economies to foreign enterprise and entrepreneurship will qualify for funding. To this end the Bush administration has devised sixteen eligibility criteria -- ranging from civil liberties to ‘days to start a business’ – that each country must successfully pass prior to receiving aid. Despite its impact on normalising, and thus legitimating, the tendency toward the privatisation of aid and militarisation of development, there has been very little critical work on the MCA. This article attempts to understand historically the MCA as a moment of American empire. It is argued that while the form of the MCA represents an unabashed articulation of US-led imperialism vis-à-vis the poorest regions in the South, the content of this allegedly novel strategy reflects the same goals and interests that underlie the neoliberal agenda.
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