U.S. aid to foreign countries, often the source of criticism and praise, is administered by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Responding to the importance of developing and maintaining stable, sustainable democratic societies worldwide, USAID peruses a primary goal of ending extreme poverty in countries with average daily individual personal incomes of $1.90 or less.
While foreign aid represents less than 1% of the annual U.S. federal budget, the expenditure of about $23 billion a year is often criticized by policymakers who argue the money would be better spent on U.S. domestic needs.
However, when he argued for passage of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, President John F. Kennedy summed up the importance of foreign aid as follows: “There is no escaping our obligations—our moral obligations as a wise leader and good neighbor in the interdependent community of free nations—our economic obligations as the wealthiest people in a world of largely poor people, as a nation no longer dependent upon the loans from abroad that once helped us develop our own economy and our political obligations as the single largest counter to the adversaries of freedom.”
Other Players in U.S. Foreign Policy
While the Department of State is mainly responsible for implementing it, a great deal of U.S. foreign policy is developed by the President of the United States along with presidential advisers and Cabinet members.
The President of the United States, as the Commander in Chief, exercises broad powers over the deployment and activities of all U.S. armed forces in foreign nations. While only Congress can declare war, presidents empowered by legislation such as the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists Act of 2001, have often sent U.S. troops into combat on foreign soil without a congressional declaration of war. Clearly, the ever-changing threat of simultaneous terrorist attacks by multiple poorly defined enemies on multiple fronts has necessitated a more rapid military response that allowed by the legislative process.