Chris Hayes, Washington Editor of The Nation, reports for Al-Jazeera English about the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). President Obama promised, on the campaign trail, to double US foreign assistance, but though USAID’s staff has increased, it still lacks a director and suffers from problems of privatization and militarization left over from the Bush years. Carol Lancaster, of Georgetown University and the Center for Global Development, says it has become “less of a thinking agency and more of a check-writing agency.” Will Obama manage to turn USAID back to its original mission?

—Sarah Jaffe

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