by Andy Heintz

Created on: September 05, 2008

This question misses the point. Of course foreign aid is not going to end global poverty by itself. The really question should be can foreign aid help poor people reach the first rung on economic ladder? I believe the answer to this question is yes. But foreign aid should only be part of rich countries relations with poorer countries. Solving the problems facing our civilization in the 21st century will require more global cooperation between all countries.

Today the world needs to deal with a variety of problems. These problems include water shortages, the AIDS epidemic, terrorism, climate change, desertification, overfishing, extreme poverty and nuclear proliferation. These problems have no respect for borders and they will affect all of us if we do not take the right steps to fix them. Isolationism, unilateralism and military power will not solve all the world's problems. This is why foreign aid and global cooperation is more important then ever in today's world. Foreign aid should no longer be looked at solely as an act of goodwill-but as an investment in U.S. National Security.

One obvious reason for giving foreign aid to poor nations is that carefully targeted foreign aid meant to address specific problems can help create a safer world. In today's interconnected world we can not afford to ignore crises in other regions. Failed states can become breeding grounds for terrorism. These terrorists have shown their willingness to attack both rich and poor countries. We have already seen this occur in Afghanistan.

I know critics of foreign aid will argue that it has failed in the past and will continue to fail in the future. They will argue that open markets and good governance are the only solutions for ending poverty. This argument is only half-right. Foreign aid critics are absolutely right when they say poverty will not be ended until all people are living under reasonably stable governments and when rich countries give poorer countries more access to their markets. But they are wrong to believe that poverty can be ended without poor countries receiving any foreign aid from richer countries.

There is no doubt that a lot of foreign aid has been squandered over the years. There have been times when the U.S. has given substantial amounts of money to corrupt foreign officials who used the aid to grease the palms of their buddies instead of investing in the citizens in their country. There have been other times when aid has seemed to only benefit the highly paid

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