USGLC

Samantha Power serves as Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Background on her statements on development and diplomacy:

On U.S. global leadership: Power recommends the Biden administration pursue “foreign policy initiatives that can quickly highlight the return of American expertise and competence. Here, Biden should emphasize policies that provide clear, simultaneous benefits at home; meet a critical and felt need abroad; are highly visible; and—the missing ingredient in so many U.S. foreign policy endeavors of late—produce tangible outcomes.” (Source)

On global response to COVID-19: Power wrote, “beginning to vaccinate Americans alone will not be enough to guarantee American well-being; the global pandemic will not fully end, nor will the U.S. economy fully recover, while COVID-19 is still raging elsewhere. (Source)

On the International Affairs Budget:  “The shared enemy of a future pandemic must bring about a redefinition of national security and generate long overdue increases of federal investments in domestic and global health security preparedness.” (Source)

On using all pieces of our foreign policy tools: “Humanitarian support, democracy assistance, economic development — those are not ‘nice to have’ in our foreign policy toolbox; they are critical if we are to see a more stable and just world exist.” (Source)

On global health security:  “With decades of expertise from global immunization campaigns targeting polio, measles, and smallpox, as well as the more recent campaign against Ebola in West Africa, the United States has a singular capacity to help other countries with their strategies for administering a vaccine.” (Source)

On democracy: In Power’s 2013 testimony for Senate confirmation for United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations, she said, “taking up the cause of freedom is not just the right thing to do, nor is it simply the American thing to do; it is the smart thing to do.” (source)

On multilateralism: During the Aurora Dialogues Summit of 2018 in Armenia Power said, “it’s very hard to think of a single problem that one can deal with without a multilateral solution” to which included, climate change, peace and security, and humanitarian crises. (Source)

On diplomacy: In a 2019 interview, Power said about the challenge of Iran, “if you then talk to people and say “How are we going to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon?” It requires diplomacy and engagement and foreign policy.” (Source)

On humanitarianism: In a December 2020 interview with U.S. Catholic, Power said, “I believe that American foreign policy should be more attentive to human rights concerns.” Power observed the challenges of working on humanitarian and human rights concerned, saying that her faith helps her “keep at it.” (Source)

On China: Power said, “even before the pandemic, global concern was growing about Chinese development practices, pursued most prominently through the massive infrastructure-building drive known as the Belt and Road Initiative, and particularly the steep interest charged on its loans. (Source)

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