Second Annual Gates Forum addresses the future of foreign aid
U.S. foreign policy leaders met last week at William & Mary for the second annual Gates Forum, hosted by the W&M Global Research Institute and the Gates Global Policy Center. This year's topic was "Foreign Aid and the Exercise of Power," and conferees gathered to explore the question of how the United States can reimagine its development assistance to best advance its national interests, deliver effective results, and respond to local demand.
The forum itself is a closed-door conference to facilitate high level discussions among policy makers and researchers, underpinned by a theme-setting research report, which was written this year by AidData's Sam Custer and her Policy Analysis Unit team, including Bryan Burgess, Divya Mathew, and Ana Horigoshi. To kick off the convening, the forum opened with a public keynote chaired by Custer in conversation with Chancellor Robert M. Gates ’65, L.H.D. ’98 and General Joseph Votel.
Foreign aid is part of a "symphony of power," Gates said during the keynote, as the discussion acknowledged that foreign aid is an underutilized tool of foreign policy. "There's very little altruism in the American government," he said. "But we do a disservice by keeping secret how much the United States actually does do for others," he added, "including our adversaries." Throughout the conversation Gates took the long view, emphasizing the importance of development assistance in creating an international environment that is conducive to the world we want–––peaceful, democratic, economically robust.
When Custer put Votel on the spot and asked how he would grade U.S. development assistance, he said, "C minus." "We've tended to over-militarize our policies," he said, rather than bolstering U.S. civilian structures. Echoing Gates' long view, Votel pointed out that investing in development assistance is lower cost than military engagements in the long term.
Both Gates and Votel stressed the value of the U.S. as a communicator and an interlocutor, and they highlighted lessons from history where the U.S. could have also been a better local partner and listener. "I think we have to always be cautious about creating partners in our own image," Votel said. He continued that there are many values that come with democracy, including the idea that power lies with the people, "and that doesn't mean they have to create institutions that look like ours."
A recurrent theme was patience---the need to think and act long term in the face of immediate crises. Setting the tone for the next day's meetings, the keynote conversation made clear the value of policy based on evidence and facts. "Leaning into the pursuit of facts and respectful debate are skills that sustain democratic institutions," W&M President Katherine A. Rowe said in her opening remarks.
GRI will continue to be a convener of conversations that bridge the academic and policy divide, and the next Gates forum in 2024 will tackle new questions of national security importance.
