The dismantling of core US foreign assistance institutions including USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, NDI, IRI, the US Institute of Peace will have a profound long term impact on the many thousands of institutions and organizations, and millions of individuals, who benefit from this support. The argument that democracy, development, and the rule of law are deeply intertwined and interdependent has been a motivating bi-partisan impetus in US foreign policy for decades. US development policy and funding has been explicitly about both tangible development results like improved health, nutrition, education, and access to energy, as well as improving systemic results like justice, rights, elections, government accountability. As a result, a broad eco-system of civil society organizations, government reformers, electoral administrations, court systems, human rights defenders, anti-corruption efforts, and think tanks have relied on both US financial and political support. What will be the implications of the rapid, radical changes of the world's largest and most influential donor?

Alex Thier is CEO of Lapis, a social impact organization working on education, media, and communications across the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and North and East Africa. He was previously CEO of the Overseas Development Institute in London, a leading global think tank on sustainable development, and CEO of a global anti-trafficking fund. He was appointed by President Obama as chief of Policy, Planning, and Learning at USAID, where he coordinated policy across the US government and international partners on key policy priorities including: sustainable development; democracy, rights, and governance, technology and innovation, climate change and renewable energy investment, gender equality and economic empowerment, and development  finance. As a senior US official, he managed programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia. Alex also created and managed several programs at the US Institute of Peace, including on Constitution-Making and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding. He started his career working on humanitarian assistance in conflict with the United Nations and Oxfam.

This event is sponsored by the University of Chicago Law School's International Programs, Malyi Center for the Study of Institutional and Legal Integrity, and International Law Society.

Lunch will be provided. Please submit dietary requests eight business days prior to the program to Aican Nguyen at aican@uchicago.edu. Although we will try to accommodate dietary needs, it is not guaranteed.