The geopolitics of international development (after foreign aid)

You can't have nice things without strategic independence and policy autonomy

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Foreign Policy magazine’s Fall 2025 issue has interesting essays on development. They are all worth reading, as they provide important perspectives on how the current geopolitical moment is reshaping the field of international development. This post explores what I consider to be the most interesting ideas in each essay. But before that, a brief framing is in order.

I: International development thinking and practice under multipolarity

The recent drastic cuts to U.S. foreign aid, which were part of a general trend among donors, generated lots of commentary on how development practice (as well as policymaking in low-income countries) should respond to dwindling aid cash.

Interestingly, so far the commentary on aid has featured very little discussion of the geopolitical implications of the decline of foreign…