US strips moral framing from foreign aid in ‘America first’ pivot

At a high-level conference in Washington last month, the US State Department unveiled an “America first” aid strategy that ties development dollars directly to the commercial and security goals of the world’s largest economy. This shift away from decades of framing the United States’ foreign assistance as a moral undertaking is a reflection, analysts say, of the Trump administration’s view that foreign assistance should advance America’s national interest above all else. Officials at the...