US Policy in the Pacific Islands from Biden to Trump

Abstract

Within weeks of Donald Trump’s return to the presidency of the United States (US), his foreign policy diverged sharply from that of his predecessor, Joe Biden. Having thrown the US aid agency USAID into worldwide chaos by freezing foreign aid, the Trump administration reversed the decision — or at least limited its impact — when Marco Rubio, the new secretary of state, issued a waiver for lifesaving humanitarian assistance. The US remains a comparatively minor player in the Pacific Islands south of the equator, its aid to the region worth 7 per cent of all development finance in the last decade compared with Australia’s 38 per cent. Nevertheless, USAID-funded projects seem to be immediately affected, such as World War II bomb clearance on Guadalcanal and the barefoot lawyer teams working with Papua New Guinean villagers to alert them to their rights.