Assessing Secretary of State Rice's Reform of U.S. Foreign Assistance

Publication Date: February 2008

Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Author(s): Gerald Hyman

Research Area: Government; International relations

Type: Report

Abstract:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's ambitious reorganization of the U.S. foreign assistance efforts last year is deeply, perhaps irredeemably flawed, but did produce some positive results, says a new paper from the Carnegie Endowment.

Reforms aimed at making foreign assistance an instrument of the administration's "transformational diplomacy," and ensuring greater transparency and oversight instead created an overly centralized and complex system that was rushed into practice.

In Assessing Secretary of State Rice's Reform of U.S. Foreign Assistance, former senior USAID official Gerald Hyman analyzes the objectives, implementation, and impact of the Secretarys effort to create a cohesive foreign assistance program fully integrated with U.S. national security policy.