Publication

The Peace Corps is 50 years old in 2011. The agency still holds to its founding goals, laid out by John F Kennedy, of providing technical assistance and promoting understanding. Fifty years after its founding, demand from developing countries for volunteers outstrips the Peace Corps' capacity to respond. Nonetheless, the agency operates on a model designed for a very different world, and an evolutionary change in that model from a government-operated program to a grant-making system closer to the Fulbright scholarships could result in a higher effectiveness in meeting the Peace Corps' fundamental goals over its next fifty years of life.