The Bush administration has taken an unexpected lead in creating policies apparently aimed at decreasing world poverty, pushing the World Bank to convert 45% of its loans to poor countries into grants and the G7 nations to support debt forgiveness for many of the world's poorest countries. These actions, aimed at remolding the international development system, are integral to the Bush administration's foreign policy. They believe their new system of performance-based grants will increase their regulatory grip over developing countries. They are also concerned with sub-Saharan Africa, which they see as a potential hotbed of terrorism, due to its widespread, debt-induced poverty. They believe that the combination of debt forgiveness and grants will contribute to stabilizing this region, while strengthening the legitimacy of both neoliberalism and the "war on terror".
