Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy: Lessons for the Next Half-century

by Louis A. Picard (Editor), Robert Groelsema, Terry F. Buss

This timely work presents cutting-edge analysis of the problems of U.S. foreign assistance programs - why these problems have not been solved in the past, and how they might be solved in the future. The book focuses primarily on U.S. foreign assistance and foreign policy as they apply to nation building, governance, and democratization. The expert contributors examine issues currently in play, and also trace the history and evolution of many of these problems over the years. They address policy concerns as well as management and organizational factors as they affect programs and policies. "Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy" includes several chapter-length case studies (on Iraq, Pakistan, Ghana, Haiti, and various countries in Eastern Europe and Africa), but the bulk of the book presents broad coverage of general topics such as foreign aid and security, NGOs and foreign aid, capacity building, and building democracy abroad. Each chapter offers recommendations on how to improve the U.S. system of aid in the context of foreign policy.

464 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

About the author

Professor Louis A. Picard is the Director of the Ford Institute for Human Security at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also the former Associate Dean (1988-1992) and Acting Dean (1989-1990) of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh and Director of the International Development Division of the Graduate school of Public and International Affairs of the University of Pittsburgh. He served as President of Public Administration Service. (2002-2005). His research and consulting specializations include international development, governance, development management, local government, civil society and human resource development. His primary area of interest is Africa and he has had extensive fieldwork in Southern Africa including three years in South Africa. He has worked in the Anglophone East and West Africa, including the Horn, Francophone West Africa and North Africa. He also has research interests and experience in Central America and the Caribbean, South Asia and in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia.

He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development (A.I.D.), the World Bank, the U.S. Information Agency (U.S.I.A.), UNDP, and U.S. Department of State. He is an Associate Member of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) Standing Panel on Social Equity in Governance and a member of the NAPA Africa Working Group, a joint initiative of the Social Equity Panel and the International Standing Panel. He has worked for the Academy for Educational Development, Associates for Rural Development, Management Systems International, TransCentury, Creative Associates and Development Alternatives Inc. He has worked as teacher, researcher and consultant in Botswana, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Guinea-Conakry, Mexico, Morocco, Lesotho, Mozambique, Pakistan, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Dr. Picard has carried out research on regional and district administration in Tanzania, developed the training system for local government in Botswana, and for the last ten years has been working on issues of liberalism, governance and local governance and development management on South Africa. From 1991-1994 Dr. Picard served as a UNDP and World Bank advisor on regional and local government and on public sector capacity building in both Ethiopia and Eritrea. He has worked in more than 46 countries, 38 of which are in Africa and the Middle East. His major academic research for the last several years has been on the political transformation in South Africa. He has also carried out research on U.S. foreign aid, security and diplomacy. He is the author or editor of 11 books more than forty articles and book chapters and numerous reports.