Discussion Paper

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Development and development policy in the Trump era

Klingebiel, Stephan / Andy Sumner (eds.)
Discussion Paper (23/2025)

Bonn: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)

ISBN: 978-3-96021-268-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.23661/idp23.2025

Since the beginning of US President Donald Trump’s second term in early 2025, not only US development policy but the entire international development cooperation landscape has fundamentally changed. The United States – previously by far the leading actor in global development cooperation – has rapidly withdrawn from key multilateral structures, drastically cut budgets and almost completely shut down the operations of its own development agency, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This move exemplifies a deeper tectonic shift: the end of a phase of Western-dominated global cooperation and broad acceptance of rules-based collaboration, now giving way to a multipolar, power-driven and conflict-laden world order.

Andy Sumner is Professor of International Development at King’s College in London and President of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes.

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