At this critical moment when an Israel-Hamas peace plan might be workable, United States policymakers who care about making America “safer and stronger” should contemplate the intersection of two dramatic 2025 events: the simultaneous destruction of Gaza and the decimation of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The first act of destruction created a reconstruction challenge of almost unfathomable proportions: more than 140 square miles of rubble, strewn with corpses, unexploded ordnance, and deadly contaminants of every kind, filled with some 2 million people facing hunger, sickness and unemployment with no functioning government or services.
The second act of destruction, spawned by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, assault on USAID earlier this year, substantially dismantled the U.S. government toolkit to fix such problems.
About the author
James Kunder
James Kunder is principal at Kunder-Reali Associates, an Alexandria, Virginia-based consulting firm specializing in international development, post-conflict reconstruction and civil-military relations. Concurrently, he serves on the steering committee of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network. He previously served as deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
