The Marshall Plan's role in the economic recovery of Europe after World War II is often invoked as indisputable proof that foreign aid works. In 2005, while serving as chancellor of the exchequer, British prime minister Gordon Brown called for "a new deal between developed and developing countries as bold and as generous as the Marshall Plan of the 1940s." The Gleneagles G8 summit that year resulted in $50 billion in new aid pledges and $40 billion in debt cancellation. Aid proponents say that even this historic increase fell far short of the amounts required to end global poverty.

What was the Marshall Plan, and why did it succeed? Bearing only a superficial resemblance to modern-day aid programs, the Marshall Plan focused on support for the private sector, policy reform, and regional integration. At this event--which coincides with the sixtieth anniversary of President Harry Truman's signing of the Marshall Plan into law on April 3, 1948--Deepak Lal, the James Coleman Professor of Development Studies at UCLA; AEI visiting fellow Sarath Rajapatirana; and David Devlin-Foltz, director of the Aspen Institute's Global Interdependence Initiative will discuss the real lessons of the Marshall Plan for the development challenges of today. AEI resident fellow Mauro De Lorenzo will moderate.