Handoff: How George W. Bush Mobilized Smart Development and New Partnerships, and Its Lessons for Today's World

We hear voices on the right and on the left questioning our support for Ukraine, arguing that we have more pressing problems at home. I'd argue that that's zero-sum thinking. That it's framing development assistance and foreign assistance as an either/or choice between the child in Kyiv and the child in Kentucky; the child in Uganda and the child in Utah. That's a false dichotomy. The truth is that great nations don't choose between the child at home and the child abroad. They help both."

—Gary Edson, Deputy National Security Advisor and Deputy National Economic Advisor to President George W. Bush

When the Bush Administration came into office, it encountered a world grappling with a range of historic challenges. From HIV/AIDS and malaria impacting millions of families to extreme poverty and inequality touching countless communities, it was a world in need of new ideas and approaches. President Bush and his team, supported by bipartisan coalitions in Congress, crafted tools that not only brought new hope to the developing world, but also changed the way America and the West approached development and foreign assistance.

In this conversation, a panel of experts from those days help us understand how those tools were developed, how well they worked in various settings, and what lessons they offer for today’s development challenges. Participants included former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, former White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, former Deputy National Security Advisor Gary Edson, former USAID Administrator Henrietta Fore, and Wilson Center President and former USAID Administrator and Ambassador to Tanzania, Mark Andrew Green.