Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. This report by the Congressional Research Service provides an overview of that assistance.

Unrest in Pakistan over the suspension of the country's outspoken chief justice could undermine President Pervez Musharraf's efforts to keep control.

Latin America Studies expert Julia Sweig discusses President Bush’s trip to Latin America in a conference call.

President Bush was met by large protests in Brazil, his first stop on a five-country tour of Latin America aimed at mending ties in the region.

rShannon O’Neil, a CFR expert on Latin America, says President Bush heads for Latin America on March 8 hoping for a “foreign policy success,” but because of his lame duck status, it will be hard for him to achieve very much.

Adam Isacson, director of programs at the Center for International Policy in Washington, discusses the Bush administration's 2008 foreign aid proposal for Latin America.

U.S. policy toward Africa under President Bush has stressed development and humanitarian aid. But recent U.S. military action in Somalia raises the specter of a more intrusive approach, particularly in the Horn of Africa. Is it a harbinger of things to come?

The Hudson Institute released its Index of Global Philanthropy.  The second edition of the Index also includes new data and trends in European private giving. While giving data are nowhere near as fully studied as those in the U.S., there is growing interest in measuring Europe's philanthropic flows more carefully. The 2007 Index also presents comparative private giving, remittances data, and government aid for the 22 donor countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 

Two economists, Steven Radelet of the Center for Global Development and William Easterly of New York University, debate the effectiveness of foreign aid.

John Danilovich, chief executive of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, says the organization has become more aggressively engaged with developing nations in pressing economic reforms and is now disbursing aid more efficiently. Congress is on course to provide its highest funding levels yet for the program.

Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee argues that filling out aid forms and geographically coordinating where aid goes could improve the efficiency and efficacy of aid. Banerjee's primary example is the earthquake in Pakistan where some villages ended up with many trunks of aid from different donors whiles others were left waiting for their first consignment. Economists argue that coordination is urgent and not very difficult.

Text of the statement before the House International Relations Committee, Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia by Jon B. Alterman (Director, Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies) arguing that US aid to Egypt remains a valuable part of US policy in the Middle East despite dissatisfaction on both sides.

A series of events—the latest an Israeli shelling Tuesday which killed at least nine—has shattered the relative calm between Israel and the Palestinians since the election of Hamas in January. Responding to an earlier shelling which Israel denies, Hamas called off a self-imposed truce and raised fears of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli violence.

Judith Kipper says the economic boycott of the Hamas government has created a major crisis in the Palestinian territories: "The situation is extremely dangerous because the humanitarian despair is really, really drastic, particularly in Gaza: people are hungry and dying." She says both Israel and the United States miscalculated when they sought to cut off the newly-elected Hamas government from international aid.

Listen to experts discuss whether there is a link between aid and economic growth, and what aid strategies, if any, can facilitate economic growth.

Watch experts discuss whether there is a link between aid and economic growth, and what aid strategies, if any, can facilitate economic growth.

The U.S. State Department, linking development to national security, is taking steps to improve coordination of the country’s fragmented foreign assistance programs. The moves hark back to the foreign aid goals of the Marshall Plan, but are seen by many as too limited.