A Realist Perspective on the Millennium Challenge Corporation's Aid Objectives in Nepal and Their Achievement

In recent years, the US Indo-Pacific Strategy has become the subject of rhetoric and apart from actively involving India in various versions of the cooperation mechanism, foreign aid has also become an important means of US involvement in the region. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is one of the leading organizations implementing US foreign aid, billed as helping developing countries to fight poverty and achieve sustainable development. The MCC as a major participant in the Indo-Pacific vision, has been actively engaged in a pact with Nepal to provide assistance. Nepali society fears that acceptance of the agreement will lead it into a debt trap and hijack it as a military and security ally of the US Indo-Pacific strategy. This paper examines the political attributes and interests of the Millennium Challenge Corporation from a realist perspective, and analyses its role and characteristics within the framework of US foreign aid policy in the light of the new direction of the Biden administration's foreign policy.