Social Development and Foreign Policy

Abstract

The contemporary realization of the importance of international progress in the economic and social fields, and particularly the development of the less-developed countries, has added a new dimension to foreign policy and resulted in vast foreign aid programs. Chief factors in this development are the unprecedented acceleration in population growth occur ring primarily in the less-developed countries least able to sus tain it, the "revolution of rising expectations," and Communist penetration. In addition to an increase in financial and tech nical assistance to the less-developed countries, the free world, building on strength, must emphasize that the purpose of eco nomic development is a social objective and that the methods used to promote development cannot be divorced from the overriding social objective without destroying the objective itself. Development planning should aim at balanced economic and social growth and stress economic programs with an early social impact in terms of improved levels of living, and social programs designed to further economic growth.