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Mutually assured development destruction
If wealthier countries refuse to provide for the global common good, the multilateral system as we know it will not survive.
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Congolese refugees gather for a possible chance to receive aid during a food distribution operation on May 7 at the Musenyi refugee site in Giharo. Since January 2025, more than 71,000 people fleeing ongoing violence in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo have crossed into Burundi, its largest refugee influx in decades, the United Nations says. (AFP/Luis Tato)
T
oward the end of the ancient Indian epic the Mahabharata, Krishna’s Yadava clan self-destructs. Many dark omens presage their downfall: Nature behaves erratically and pests multiply. Sin, deception and violence proliferate, eroding trust and solidarity. Clan members humiliate and insult wise elders. When Krishna’s extended family goes on a picnic, the men get drunk, argue and attack each other, until eventually all of them are dead.
This cautionary tale has gained new resonance as geopolitical tensions, including in South Asia, escalate, and many countries embrace protectionist policies.
United States President Donald Trump’s second administration has contributed significantly to the current fragmentation and disorder. But other wealthy countries have exacerbated the situation by failing to show any real solidarity in response to Trump’s hostile policies.
The lack of development cooperation is a prime example of this growing appetite for mutually assured destruction. To be sure, aid from donor countries was already declining, and recent events have exposed the system’s injustices. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted Western governments’ greed, undermining others’ trust in their global leadership.
Moreover, the fact that these governments have directed most of their dwindling foreign-aid budgets to Ukraine since Russian’s 2022 invasion, diverting funds away from other war-torn and desperately poor countries, has underscored the largely self-serving approach to such “charity” flows.
Still, it is surprising, and dispiriting, that other donor countries have not stepped up after Trump terminated almost all US foreign-aid funding and programming. This would have been the obvious thing to do, not necessarily out of solidarity, but simply because of geopolitical self-interest.
For starters, Trump’s indiscriminate attacks on allies and rivals alike have demonstrated the necessity of coordinated action, which requires building alliances, supporting multilateralism and cultivating soft power. One easy and relatively affordable way to do that is by continuing to support multilateral institutions. Such funding may also defuse some of the anger that many people in the Global South feel about the Western world’s complicity in the ongoing decimation and mass killings in Gaza.
