Clinton Announces Development Will Be Central Pillar of Foreign Policy

by Mike Smith · 2010-01-07 12:33:00 UTC
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In a high profile speech delivered yesterday, Hilary Clinton explained that development would be elevated to be a 'Central Pillar' of U.S. foreign policy. With the Obama administration not making its foreign policy thinking clear, it's unclear in what company this central pillar will find itself. Exactly what the pillar will be constructed of is similarly unclear. Tying security to improving delivery of aid is a nice target, but there were few specifics, and US global health and development policy has been slow under the Obama administration, illustrated most vividly by the terribly slow appointment of new administrator of USAID Rajiv Shah, who was finally sworn in this afternoon.

But this is just the beginning, and a beginning is what we need. USAID will now have a high profile and after the healthcare battle, and climate conference let-down, the Obama administration will able to concentrate even more of their resources to helping the world's most needy.

Tying foreign aid to fighting terrorism is definitely a good way to sell it to the American people. Clinton said: "We cannot stop terrorism or defeat the ideologies of violent extremism when hundreds of millions of young people see a future with no jobs, no hope, and no way ever to catch up to the developed world."

Nicholas Kristof noted that Obama hasn't even looked like making his mark on global poverty yet, somewhere that President Bush left a broad and often overlooked legacy. Kristof also wants more specifics but is pleased that Clinton is already focusing on making sure aid is cost-effective, and is determined to ensure that local countries be made equal partners, rather than be dictated to by the U.S.

So there were some big promises, but it's the dozens of small commitments that I looking forward to see sprout as a result of Clinton's speech and Rajiv Shah's appointment in the year ahead.

Photo credit: US Army Africa

Mike Smith
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