What did American foreign aid actually accomplish—and where did it fail?

In this episode, Matt Davis sits down with Clifford Brown, author of Inside USAID: An Odyssey of Foreign Assistance, whose career took him from a partnership at a Beverly Hills commercial law firm to nearly three decades working in international development around the world.

As a legal advisor and senior USAID official, Clifford served across Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia, including as Mission Director to Guinea and Sierra Leone, Country Representative, and Deputy Mission Director for USAID’s role in Plan Colombia.

Along the way, he witnessed military coups, revolutions, corruption, drug wars, human trafficking, institutional instability, and the fragility of social order. He also saw firsthand what American foreign assistance could accomplish—and where government programs and institutions could fall short.

Rather than reducing USAID and foreign aid to another partisan argument, this conversation examines what actually happened on the ground.

Matt and Clifford explore the successes and failures of American foreign assistance, lessons from decades of international development, the challenges of operating inside unstable countries, and what the United States should learn from that experience as Americans reconsider the country’s role in the world.

Whether you support foreign aid, oppose it, or believe the system needed significant reform, understanding the evidence and experiences behind it matters.

Learn more about Clifford Brown and Inside USAID:

https://cliffordhbrown.com

Truth isn’t partisan—it’s patriotic.