Without usaid, we will have a more dangerous world

It is not surprising that President Vladimir Putin de Russia and other autocrats around the world are delighted that the United States is dismantling its main humanitarian organization abroad, the Agency for International Development. VI firsthand how Usaid helped restore the rule of law and respect for democracy in the country devastated by the Bosnia-Herzegovina war, providing stability and a counterweight to global rivals. In contrast to the deceptive characterizations of the organization promoted by the Trump administration, its work directly advances US interests throughout the world, and eliminating this crucial agency on false claims is false and dangerous.

In the 1990s, I directed a program of the Law Initiative of Central Europe and the American Association of Lawyers, a non -governmental organization created to help ancient communist countries with the transition to legal systems based on the State of law. Financed by USAID and using the structure and philosophy of the American legal system as a model, we help emerging democracies to establish protections for individual rights, build independent judiciary and train a new generation of lawyers, prosecutors and judges in the rules of a democratic legal system.

It is the type of program funded by USAID that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described as a “Global charity separated from national interest. “Nothing could be further from the truth.

The office I directed was in Bosnia-Herzegovina and faced the additional challenges of a country that recovered from the mortal Balkan wars of the early 1990s, as well as communism. It was a difficult job, requiring ourselves to navigate the persistent distrust and the animosity of horrors, including ethnic cleaning, of the conflict at that time of the country. However, as representatives of the United States, our office was in the unique position to build the confidence of all parties and organize a coalition of international organizations in support of the effort.

CEELI’s work was designed for immediate impact and long -term results. We help to form and launch a new Constitutional Court with a mixture of local and international judges; create a new Supreme Court for the Bosnian Federation; write new codes of ethics for the Judiciary and prosecutors; and support the creation of new professional associations to promote the independence of these roles. We also collaborate with the faculties of local law to reform their curriculum to reflect the new democratic system.

None of this would have been possible without USAID, which provided most of our funds. USAID officials acknowledged that our work was essential to stabilize the country, avoiding another outbreak of hostilities and planting seeds for a system based on the rule of law to root.

By encouraging the development of democratic institutions and using the American system as a model, CEELI used USAID funds to promote the values ​​of the United States abroad; establish strategic associations in the geographically sensitive areas of the east and southern Europe; counteract the influence of rivals such as Russia, China and Iran; and help foster confidence in the legal system among citizens who were accustomed to the “telephone justice” of the communist era, when a phone call from the party determined the result of many cases.

Far from being “separated from national interest,” CEELI was an intelligent and strategic investment of the United States government that advanced our national interests at many levels. Was it successful? Yes. While the results in Bosnia are certainly mixed, democracy has faced a series of challenges in that country and region beyond the reach of the legal system, the program helped stabilize the country and avoid any important struggle at a dangerous time, He supported many other countries on his way to democracy, and protected Bosnia from the risk of falling to non -democratic regimes.

It is ironic that, although our own institutions of democracy are under siege, our leaders are demonizing Usaid as a “criminal organization”(In the words of Elon Musk). Financing programs such as CEELI help other countries to fight exactly the type of power without control we are seeing in Washington. Maybe that is the point of cutting them. However, it is still shocking that this is happening in a country whose legal system has been considered the model for the rule of law that dates back to generations.

As the United States withdraw from countries around the world, others will intervene to fill the void and important support systems will simply stop, risking the progress that has been made after decades of work. This is true for the work of construction of democracy, as well as for the range of health programs, disaster help and humanitians backed by USAID.

The result will be damaged not only for the countries involved, but also for our national interests, since democracy weakens even more in the key regions of geopolitical competence. By cutting our support and connections with emerging democracies worldwide, the largest loser will be the United States.

Charles Rudnick is a lawyer who served as a rule link to Bosnia and Herzegovina and specialist in the domain of law in Kosovo for the Law initiative of Central Europe and Europe of the American Bar Association in the 1990s in the 1990s . He is currently Chief of Advance and History Professor at the School Dedham Country Day.