Development Derailed: How to Put U.S. Foreign Aid Policy on a Better Track

Abstract

There are three central subdivisions to American foreign policy: diplomacy, defense, and development aid. Both defense and diplomacy are housed in cabinet-level departments – the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of State, respectively – while development remains a comparatively neglected initiative. This is unfortunate because when utilized properly, development, manifested through foreign aid, is a cost-effective, mutually-beneficial method of simultaneously improving global living standards and serving American interests. Today, American distribution of aid is an overly complex, frequently inefficient system of competing interests that is not able to reach its potential. A comprehensive reform of American foreign aid is needed, beginning with the creation of the cabinet-level Department of Aid and Development (DoAD).