Many privatization contracts have included environmental escape clauses. Bankruptcies often have left the question of cleanup unanswered since the governments simply have not had the requisite funds. Toward a New Foreign Policy Key Recommendation Support stronger social programs such as education and health. Encourage greater public investment and step back from rapid privatization. Provide funds for environmental cleanup and facilitate the growth of environmentally responsible businesses.
Structural adjustment is well underway in East-Central Europe.
It has survived changes in government, waves of strikes, reductions in foreign aid, and refugee pressures from the east and south. But it has not produced stable, equitable, or healthy economies. The governments in the region can still do a great deal to ensure a future of equitable and sustainable growth. And the U.S. can, in the following ways, alter its pattern of carrots and sticks to encourage this result. It is unlikely that in today's climate the U.S. would actively promote a full-scale industrial policy in which the governments in the region pick and subsidize winners in the economy.