Foreign Aid

Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!

What should America do about the Arab Spring? Not much.

BY F. GREGORY GAUSE III | DECEMBER 21, 2011

A Friend in Need

Can disaster aid actually win hearts and minds?

BY CHARLES KENNY | OCTOBER 31, 2011

The Numbers Game

U.N. spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs writes that David Rieff's accusations of casualty count inflation are unfair.

NOVEMBER 2011

Liberia’s Fundraiser in Chief

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf may have won the Nobel Peace Prize and widespread international admiration, but can she win re-election?

BY KAREN LEIGH | OCTOBER 7, 2011

Bridges to Somewhere

More austerity won't save the global economy. Building infrastructure just might.

BY JUSTIN YIFU LIN | SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Stopping the Fifth Column

How to end a post-Qaddafi insurgency in Libya before it starts.

BY BRIAN FISHMAN | AUGUST 24, 2011

The Black Hawk Down Effect

We all know what went wrong the last time the international community tried to end a crisis in Somalia. But we've forgotten what went right.

BY JOHN L. HIRSCH | AUGUST 12, 2011

This Fight Ain't Over

Think the debt ceiling gridlock was ugly? Congress is just getting warmed up. Here are eight more foreign-policy battles right around the corner.

BY JOSH ROGIN | AUGUST 4, 2011

Interview: Rajiv Shah

The USAID administrator on the epic food crisis in the Horn of Africa, dealing with al Shabab, and why Somalia's famine is going to get worse before it gets better.

INTERVIEW BY ROBERT ZELIGER | JULY 28, 2011

Famine Is a Crime

Civilization has defeated mass starvation. So why are so many Somalis dying of hunger?

BY CHARLES KENNY | JULY 25, 2011

Less Is More

Cutting U.S. military aid to Pakistan might be just what the world's most frustrating alliance needs.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JULY 22, 2011

Hunger in the Horn of Africa

Crippling drought has struck East Africa, leaving 12 million people in desperate need of aid.

JULY 21, 2011

Sorry, Pakistan: China Is No Sugar Daddy

Just because Washington and Islamabad are at odds doesn't mean Beijing is looking to step in.

BY URMILA VENUGOPALAN | JULY 21, 2011

The Price Is Right

How the world can buy its way out of poverty for just $100 billion.

BY CHARLES KENNY | JULY 18, 2011

The Road Home from Kabul

Drawing down troops from Afghanistan is the right move. Now it's time to focus on the real threat in the neighborhood: the one coming from Pakistan.

BY JOHN KERRY | JUNE 24, 2011

Postcards from Hell, 2011

Images from the world's most failed states.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | JUNE 20, 2011

Green Shoots in the Killing Fields

Citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo believe there's hope for their war-torn country even if no one else does -- and their optimism is starting to get results.

BY CHARLES KENNY | JUNE 20, 2011

Grave Inflation

A new report on the Haiti earthquake reminds again that, for aid groups, more casualties means more funding.

BY DAVID RIEFF | JUNE 9, 2011

Warsaw on the Nile

How do you get the new Arab democracies' economies in order? Look to Eastern Europe.

BY JAMES TRAUB | JUNE 3, 2011

You Can't Always Get What You Want

What Amazon.com and Netflix can teach us about fighting poverty.

BY DEAN KARLAN, JACOB APPEL | MAY 31, 2011

The Great Asian Land Grab

How a World Bank program helped displace tens of thousands of urban poor.

BY MIKE ECKEL | MAY 13, 2011

The Myth of 9 Billion

Why ignoring family planning overseas was the worst foreign-policy mistake of the century.

BY MALCOLM POTTS, MARTHA CAMPBELL | MAY 9, 2011

The War on Soft Power

Even the U.S. military doesn't want to cut the State Department and foreign aid budget. So why is Congress playing a dangerous game with America's global influence?

BY JOSEPH S. NYE JR. | APRIL 12, 2011

Think Again: The Afghan Drug Trade

Why cracking down on Afghanistan's opium business won't help stop the Taliban -- or the United States' own drug problems.

BY JONATHAN P. CAULKINS, JONATHAN D. KULICK, AND MARK A.R. KLEIMAN | APRIL 1, 2011

Corps Concerns

In an age of globe-trotting American college kids, ubiquitous Internet access, and cell phone networks that reach even sub-Saharan cattle herders, does the world still need the Peace Corps?

BY CHARLES KENNY | FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Slash and Burn

Congressional Republicans are bent on all but eliminating the U.S. government's foreign aid budget. And Defense Secretary Robert Gates may be the only one who can stop them.

BY JAMES TRAUB | FEBRUARY 18, 2011

This Week at War: The Pakistan Scenario

How the United States could end up paying even more for an anti-American Egypt.

BY ROBERT HADDICK | FEBRUARY 4, 2011

Don't Forget Gaza

Amid the political turmoil engulfing the Arab world, there's one overlooked problem spot that could easily explode again.

BY SALMAN SHAIKH | JANUARY 24, 2011

Why Does Now Look So Much Like Then?

A look at Haiti, one year after the earthquake.

JANUARY 11, 2011

Great Expectations

The biggest problem with post-disaster relief efforts like Haiti's is the unreasonable ambitions we have for them.

BY CHARLES KENNY | JANUARY 10, 2011