Overview

A Brookings Institution Press and the Center for Global Development publication The plight of the poorest around the world has been pushed to the forefront of America's international agenda for the first time in many years by the war on terrorism and the formidable challenges presented by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In March 2002, President Bush announced the creation of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). This bilateral development fund represents an increase of $5 billion per year over current assistance levels and establishes of a new agency to promote growth in reform-oriented developing countries. Amounting to a doubling of U.S. bilateral development aid—the largest increase in decades—the MCA offers a critical chance to deliberately shape the face that the United States presents to people in poor nations around the world. This book makes concrete recommendations on crafting a new blueprint for distributing and delivering aid to make the MCA an effective tool, not only in its own right, but also in transforming U.S. foreign aid and strengthening international aid cooperation more generally. The book tackles head on the tension between foreign policy and development goals that chronically afflicts U.S. foreign assistance; the danger of being dismissed as one more instance of the United States going it alone instead of buttressing international cooperation; and the risk of exacerbating confusion among the myriad overlapping U.S. policies, agencies, and programs targeted at developing nations, particularly USAID. In doing so, The Other War draws important lessons from new international development initiatives, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, the mixed record of previous U.S. aid efforts, trends in the U.S. budget for foreign assistance, the agencies currently involved in administering U.S. development policy, and the importance of the relationship between Congress and the executive branch in determining aid outcomes. The MCA holds the promise of substantially increasing U.S. development assistance and piolicy, and the importance of the relationship between Congress and the executive branch in determining aid outcomes. The MCA holds the promise of substantially increasing U.S. development assistance and pioneering a new era in aid, but the authors caution against creating yet another example of wasted aid that could undermine political support for foreign assistance for decades to come.

Full Product Details

9780815711155

Table of Contents

Reviews

[A]n insightful examination of the proposed Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). -C. Kilby, Vassar College, Choice, 12/1/2003 | This book...provides a detailed analysis of the MCA. In particular, it suggests how MCA may be fashioned as an effective tool to rebuild US development policy. -Mak Arvin, Trent University, Ontario, Canada, Journal of Development Studies, 10/1/2003 | The authors discuss some important operational issues that shape the ability of the MCA to achieve its goals.... The central concern informing the authors' recommendations is to effect a shift in U.S. development assistance away from a top-down, donor-driven approach to one that supports, and even encourages, recipient countires to design and implement their own development plans. -James Busumtwi-Sam, Simon Fraser University, International Journal, 1/1/2004 | The joint study by a multidisciplinary team of Brookings scholars offers an important in sight into how best to craft the MCA to make it an effective aid distributing and delivering mechanism that would both transform US policy on the poorest countries and enhance international poverty reduction efforts.... The Other War is one of the most important recent contributions to the study of development aid practices and a valuable guide for policy-makers. -

A very timely and stimulating analysis of a critical issue. It makes a persuasive case for how the U.S. could either use the MCA to rebuild its global leadership in development or distance itself further from its development partners.

""[A]n insightful examination of the proposed Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)."" —C. Kilby, Vassar College, Choice, 12/1/2003 |""This book...provides a detailed analysis of the MCA. In particular, it suggests how MCA may be fashioned as an effective tool to rebuild US development policy."" —Mak Arvin, Trent University, Ontario, Canada, Journal of Development Studies, 10/1/2003 |""The authors discuss some important operational issues that shape the ability of the MCA to achieve its goals.... The central concern informing the authors' recommendations is to effect a shift in U.S. development assistance away from a top-down, donor-driven approach to one that supports, and even encourages, recipient countires to design and implement their own development plans."" —James Busumtwi-Sam, Simon Fraser University, International Journal, 1/1/2004 |""The joint study by a multidisciplinary team of Brookings scholars offers an important in sight into how best to craft the MCA to make it an effective aid distributing and delivering mechanism that would both transform US policy on the poorest countries and enhance international poverty reduction efforts.... The Other War is one of the most important recent contributions to the study of development aid practices and a valuable guide for policy-makers."" —

Author Information

Lael Brainard is vice president and director of the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution, where she holds the Bernard E. Schwartz Chair in International Economics. Brainard served as deputy national economic adviser in the Clinton administration. Carol Graham is the Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow in Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution. She is also College Park Professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy. Her previous books include Happiness around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires (Oxford) and Happiness and Hardship: Opportunity and Insecurity in New Market Economies, with Stefano Pettinato (Brookings). Nigel Purvis is the president of Climate Advisers and a visiting scholar at Resources for the Future. He is a former senior U.S. climate change negotiator, acting most recently as deputy assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment, and science.

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