Fixing foreign aid requires confronting fundamental tensions

In this article in Foreign Policy, Dennis Vega, Pact's president and CEO, and Daphne McCurdy, Pact's vice president of policy and advocacy, argue that critics of U.S. foreign aid have ignored competing policy goals and structural trade-offs between control and flexibility. Foreign assistance needs to be reformed, but when used effectively it is a vital tool of influence, security, and partnership. To build what's next, Washington must confront these trade-offs head-on: balancing speed with accountability, localization with risk, and self-reliance with enduring relationships. This means bringing in the broader national security apparatus from the outset to build by-in and resolve these trade-offs in the most effective possible way.