The question is what those programs are. I'd like some details on China because I suspect a lot of it has something to do with public health, and if that's the case, it's cost effective and in American interests to try to contain bird flu or whatever this year's version of OMG! Killer Influenza! closer to sources of an outbreak rather than letting it spread to the US due to easy international travel. Brazil's probably either public health, family planning or some sort of granola Save the Amazon technical/engineering assistance. Russia is a small part public health and I suspect a large part effective outright bribery. India- because we don't want to be seen as overly favoring Pakistan in that region, and we've pumped a lot of money into Pakistan to try to make sure their nukes stay out of terrorist hands. Mexico- probably a mix of drug war spending that doesn't go straight through the DEA budget and encouraging Mexicans to stay in Mexico rather than crossing the border. (What was supposed to be a Voice of America-funded PSA radio song about 'If you go into the desert, you'll die' actually got pretty high on their pop charts a while back) and Egypt is pretty much a bribe to keep them from causing too much fuss with Israel.