Kellogg Prof. Dean Karlan and Ambassador in Residence Ian Kelly conversed about the state of United States foreign aid at a Thursday event hosted by the World Affairs Group.
The event — the first of what will be an annual symposium put on by the one-year-old club — drew a full house audience in Northwestern’s Great Room at 600 Haven St.
“Since foreign aid has been such a hot topic under the Trump administration, we wanted to discuss America’s place in foreign aid, where it has been and where it’s heading right now,” said Weinberg sophomore and WAG Director of Logistics & Finance Lara Choy, a former Daily staffer.
Choy said the group intended to bring in Karlan to share his economic perspective of foreign aid, having been the chief economist of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Choy added that because Kelly served as U.S. ambassador to Georgia, he also brought a political diplomatic perspective to the stage.
The conversation was organized in three parts, according to Weinberg junior and WAG President Santiago Elizondo. The first segment defined foreign aid before pivoting to the effectiveness of aid. The final segment focused on the future of aid in the U.S.
Elizondo said he was interested when Karlan responded to two economists’ conflicting arguments — New York University Prof. William Easterly’s argument that aid is not effective, and Columbia Prof. Jeffrey Sachs’ that it is. Karlan said it was more nuanced than that: Both arguments are right and wrong under different conditions.
Kelly also spoke about the impacts when the U.S. steps back from aid commitments, drawing from his experience with legal procedures in Georgia.
“The different angles were really, really valuable, because what we talked about was a lot of the competition stuff and the politicization of aid,” Weinberg junior and WAG Director of Podcasting Shreeya Iyer said. “It was so refreshing to hear Dean Karlan talk about the revival, or the lingering existence of conscience in delivering foreign aid.”
Weinberg junior Kenneth Ryu said he heard about the event through a newsletter from the economics department.
Ryu said he chose to attend partially because of the United State Agency of International Development’s recent prominence as the Trump administration cuts its funding.
“(I’m) just really interested to hear about what (Karlan) saw as the impact of USAID across the globe, what he sees as its future, given the current political climate,” Ryu said.
Celebrating its first full year on campus with Thursday’s event, WAG has been primarily working on research articles and podcast episodes about global issues.
Elizondo said he did not originally find a space on campus to talk about international affairs and engage in events like these — but WAG has created one.
“When people come together like this over shared interests, I think it’s gold,” Elizondo said.
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