The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2017 27 Here are eight recommendations to rationalize U.S. foreign assistance and, thus, greatly increase its effectiveness. BY THOMAS C . ADAMS FOREIGN ASSISTANCE Time to Sharpen a Vital Diplomatic Tool Thomas C. Adams is a retired Senior State Department official who spent more than 40 years in government service, including 11 years in the Foreign Service with assignments to Zanzibar, Brussels and Budapest before converting to Civil Service. During most of his government service, he was engaged in managing foreign assistance. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, he served as coordinator of assistance to Europe and Eurasia, and as Haiti special coordinator. W hen the U.S. Agency for International Develop- ment was established in 1961 during the Kennedy administra- tion, the idea was to create a skilled and muscular foreign aid agency out of an exist- ing apparatus that had become bureaucratically fragmented and not particularly effective. Evidence of the importance that Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson assigned to FOCUS NOTES TO THE NEW ADMINISTRATION this effort can be seen in their selection of USAID’s second Administrator, David Bell, who left his job as director of the Bureau of the Budget for what he considered a far more impor- tant position: USAID Administrator. In the last three decades, however, we have returned to a highly fragmented system of foreign assistance, with some 20 agencies managing what are in many cases overlapping programs. The next administration has a good opportunity to rationalize the way the United States administers its foreign assistance and, thus, greatly increase its effectiveness. Every president wants to have a strong foreign policy. Though many in Congress seem utterly hostile to foreign aid, the reality is that behind closed doors there is broad bipartisan support for foreign assistance as a key element of advanc- ing U.S. foreign policy goals. And with the American people increasingly wary of large-scale military intervention, there is a desire to use diplomatic tools over military ones. As these leaders recognize—fallacious or under-informed critiques of “nation-building” notwithstanding—U.S. foreign aid programs that build effective governments, reduce ram- pant disease, offer education and hope for the future, increase