Political Science: Hot Topics

In the United States each year, natural hazards cause hundreds of deaths and cost tens of billions of dollars in disaster aid, disruption of commerce, and destruction of homes and critical infrastructure. This series of sections will educate citizens, emergency managers, and lawmakers on seven natural hazards facing the Nation — earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanoes, and wildfires — and show how USGS science helps mitigate disasters and build resilient communities.

USAID's history goes back to the Marshall Plan reconstruction of Europe after World War Two and the Truman Administration's Point Four Program. In 1961, the Foreign Assistance Act was signed into law and USAID was created by executive order.

Since that time, USAID has been the principal U.S. agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms.