Foreign Policy Live Adam Tooze on the End of Development
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Sep 19, 2025 
Adam Tooze, an economic historian and professor at Columbia University, delves into the recent dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and its repercussions for global development. He argues that the core driver of development has always been power, not values. With the U.S. retreat, he discusses whether China can seize the opportunity to lead in global aid. Tooze also critiques the failed 2015 Development Agenda while sharing insights on China's clean energy initiatives and the evolving landscape for new development professionals.
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Development Was Always About Power
- The 2015 SDG and Paris moments were a last gasp of Western unipolar confidence rather than a durable global consensus.
- China's development success exposed that development outcomes reshape hard power and upset Western complacency.
Thresholds Create New Geopolitical Actors
- Crossing development thresholds gives states new geopolitical agency even without full convergence to rich-country incomes.
- Rising countries like Ethiopia or Rwanda gain capacities that change regional politics and stability calculations.
Finance Promises Didn’t Match Reality
- 'Billions to trillions' depended on de-risking private capital but never delivered at scale without big public guarantees.
- Private finance balks when real risks materialize, so public money must remain central for large development pushes.