In early 2025, headlines announced that the Trump administration would move to dramatically slash USAID—the United States’ flagship development agency. For many, the move was surprising, even self-defeating: why would a president so focused on countering China weaken one of Washington’s most effective tools of soft power? At the same time, China’s development finance continues to expand, and geopolitical competition over infrastructure intensifies, raising alarm bells across Washington and beyond. To help us make sense of this moment—and the broader politics of foreign aid—we’re joined by Jack Taggart, an expert on global governance and development, who discusses what these cuts mean for U.S. strategy, China’s rise, and the contested terrain of development and aid in today’s world.

BIO:

Jack Taggart is a Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy at Queen’s University Belfast. His research spans international political economy, global governance, and global development, focusing on shifting dynamics in development cooperation, such as the rise of new state and private actors, aid financialization, and development finance transformations. He also examines global governance institutions and the growing role of “multistakeholderism” in areas ranging from economic policy to environmental treaties.

Links:

The Second Cold War and Demise of the Western Foreign Aid Regime by Jack Taggart, SCWO Dispatch

How to DOGE USAID by Daniela Gabor in Phenomenal World

Industrial Policy and Imperial Realignment by Ilias Alami, Tom Chodor, Jack Taggart in Phenomenal World

Rethinking d/Development by Emma Mawdsley and Jack Taggart in Progress in Human Geography

Fictions of Financialization by Nick Bernard

Rendering development investible: the anti-politics machine and the financialisation of development by Jack Taggart and Marcus Power in Progress in Human Geography

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