Devex: USAID chief lays out a Trump development doctrine
“…In the absence of a clear development vision from the president — and at a time when other Trump appointees are trying to put their own stamp on American ‘soft power’ through channels such as the foreign assistance review — U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Mark Green faces a difficult task: to advocate for his own mission, and on his own terms, but in a way that will appeal to a skeptical boss. Now more than 15 months in office, Green has begun to articulate a vision for USAID that sounds less like a statement of his personal views, and more like a claim to represent the Trump administration’s global development doctrine. … In seeking to define development for the Trump era, Green has doubled down on the notion that USAID offers countries an alternative development model to what China is promising — which he called the ‘authoritarian approach.’ … ‘Our approach — the American approach — on the other hand, moves countries from being recipients, to partners, to fellow donors. It’s based upon the notion of a hand up, not a handout, and it helps position countries to grasp their own future.’ … A key difference between China and the U.S., in Green’s formulation, is aid transparency…” (Igoe, 12/6).