{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Can Foreign Aid Be Reformed? Should It Be?","description":"Chris, Melanie, and Zack review Adam Tooze\u2019s recent article on the failure of the UN\u2019s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) \u2013 and Western-directed aid efforts generally. What should be the goals of foreign aid? Can development assistance, as it has recently been implemented, actually make a meaningful long-term difference in living standards? What might steep cuts in foreign aid mean for poor countries? In an era of great power competition, should we look at development assistance as a way to counter China\u2019s influence? Grievances for the Trump administration\u2019s policies toward China and its new deals with Qatar, and to the US Senate for failing to assert its authority over the war powers. Attas to President Trump for successfully brokering a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, and for negotiating a new deal with Finland to build icebreakers.   Links: Adam Tooze, \u201cThe End of Development,\u201d Foreign Policy, September 8, 2025, Evan Cooper and Alessandro Perri, \u201cScenarios for US Foreign Aid in 2035,\u201d Stimson Center, September 19, 2025 Max Bearak and Lazaro Gamio, \u201cThe U.S. foreign aid budget, visualized,\u201d Washington Post, October 18, 2016 Rand Paul, \u201cThe Constitution Does Not Allow the President To Unilaterally Blow Suspected Drug Smugglers to Smithereens,\u201d Reason, October 8, 2025 Kathryn Watson, \u201cHegseth announces Qatar will build air force facility at U.S. base in Idaho,\u201d CBS News, October 10, 2025 \u201cPutting the Global Order Back Together,\u201d International Affairs Forum, Traverse City, MI, October 23, 2025 Valentina Finckenstein, How International Aid Can Do More Harm than Good: The Case of Lebanon, LSE Ideas, February 2021. William Easterly, The White Man\u2019s Burden: Why the West\u2019s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, Penguin Books, 2007. \u201cAid Cannot Make Poor Countries Rich,\u201d The Economist, March 6, 2025. Noah Robertson, Katie Tarrant, Ellen Nakashima, \u201cBipartisan Move to Restrict Trump\u2019s War Powers Fails in Senate,\u201d Washington Post, October 9, 2025. Steve Holland, Anne Kauranen, Jeff Mason, and Gram Slattery, \u201cTrump and Finland\u2019s Stuff Approve Deal for Icebreaker Ships,\u201d Reuters, October 9, 2025. ","author_name":"Net Assessment","author_url":"http:\/\/sites.libsyn.com\/132282","html":"