A Research On U.S. Overseas Infrastructure Development Policies ——Taking The Trump Administration As An Example

Policy on overseas infrastructure development is one of the important ways used to achieve U.S.foreign strategy,and its prominence in U.S.foreign policy has increased significantly during the Trump presidency.In 2017,Trump signaled at the APEC CEO Summit that the United States would pay more attention to infrastructure in its global development work and called on the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to focus more on high-quality infrastructure.The important role of overseas infrastructure development in expanding U.S.political and economic influence and gaining a competitive advantage was further emphasized in the U.S.National Security Strategy report released during his term.Prior to this,the U.S.contribution ratio to global infrastructure development has been decreasing,and after entering the new century,the U.S.government has paid even less attention to this area due to terrorist attacks and the financial crisis.What has led to the Trump administration’s shift in attitude toward overseas infrastructure development?What are the specific changes?What are the policy measures and their implementation?The Biden administration has continued its focus on infrastructure even after Trump ended his term.What will be the impact of active U.S.participation in global infrastructure development?These are the questions that this paper tries to answer.The first chapter of this paper will briefly sort out and summarize the concept of infrastructure and the different ways of classifying it.Infrastructure includes many types and this paper is discussing the construction of material infrastructure.In addition,a brief description of the role of infrastructure as a contributor to economic development and critical to national security,and the changing status of infrastructure in U.S.domestic politics will be presented.Chapter 2 will analyze the historical evolution of U.S.overseas infrastructure construction from the perspective of foreign economic aid and explain the historical background of the birth of the Trump administration’s overseas infrastructure policy.Historically,U.S.activities to undertake overseas infrastructure construction have been part of foreign economic aid and have both evolved and existed independently as the status of FEA in U.S.foreign strategy changed.As the focus of foreign economic aid shifted to humanitarian,counter-terrorism,and other challenges,the importance of overseas infrastructure development gradually diminished.However,since the essence of implementing overseas infrastructure construction is to safeguard national interests and achieve strategic goals,the status of overseas infrastructure development naturally rose when the Trump administration changed its determination of the international situation and the major challenges facing the United States.Chapter 3 will introduce the background of the policy shift of overseas infrastructure development during the Trump administration and sort out and summarize the new policies.First,reform the management organization.The International Development Finance Corporation（DFC）is responsible for overseas infrastructure investment in a coordinated manner,stimulating private sector participation in overseas infrastructure and expanding the U.S.share of the global infrastructure market.Second,build an ally system.The U.S.-led infrastructure quality certification framework-the "Blue Dot Network" initiative,and the establishment of a number of bilateral and multilateral agreements is to integrate allied resources,strengthening the U.S.influence on the global infrastructure.Third,develop standards and rules.Focus on the construction and investment standards of new and high-quality infrastructure,emphasize the importance of high transparency,openness,market-orientation and low debt crisis,and use the established advantages of the United States in technology and standard-setting to enhance its authority and power in the field.By summarizing,three main changes of the new policy are derived,namely,the vital significance of overseas infrastructure development to comprehensive strategic competition is confirmed;more emphasis is placed on the role of the private sector and the enrichment of funding sources;and the new infrastructure assistance system takes shape,and soft power such as values becomes the dominant principle.Chapter 4 will focus on the reasons of the shift in U.S.overseas infrastructure development policy.First,participation in global infrastructure development is to safeguard U.S.economic,political and security interests.The economic interest lies in enhancing economic interactions between countries and increasing the access of U.S.firms to infrastructure markets;Promote the upgrading of domestic infrastructure,thus enabling the economy to take off again.The political and security interests are to reinvigorate U.S.global leadership and win the great power competition,deterring China from using infrastructure to exert influence.Second,leading infrastructure development helps maintain U.S.dominance in standards and rule-making,prevents standards dominance from shifting to emerging countries,and prevents other countries from using infrastructure development to implement expansionism and threaten U.S.hegemony.Finally,leading global infrastructure development is inherent to the U.S.as a leader in global governance and to reshape the country’s image,and it also provides an opportunity to repair alliances damaged by "unilateralism".The final chapter will briefly analyze the impact of Trump’s overseas infrastructure policy.From the perspective of global infrastructure development,the U.S,participation in this field has,to a certain extent,alleviated the current shortage of funds in developing countries,which can encourage governments and enterprises to pay more attention to infrastructure construction.However,limited by various domestic factors,the actual U.S.foreign investment capacity making its global infrastructure program "more talk than action".The debate over standards and rules will lead to a more intense competition around the standard-setting power.All of its actions are more destructive than constructive.From the perspective of international relations,the U.S.use of overseas infrastructure as a means to achieve foreign strategic goals and maintain U.S.hegemony will intensify inter-state competition in the global infrastructure sector,while China’s perception as a major competitor undermines the cooperative relationship between the two countries in the infrastructure sector.This would not only lead to a further expansion of the scope of the U.S.-China rivalry and heighten tensions between the two countries,but would also be detrimental to the long-term development of the infrastructure sector.