Strategic Competition > Economic
Development Finance & Infrastructure
Financing Freedom: Infrastructure is a Front Line in Strategic Competition
“If we want a freer world, we must fund one.”
Kennedy is a strong advocate for activating greater international infrastructure investment and for a stronger DFC - here with Ambassador Mark Green, Nisha Biswal - Deputy CEO of the DFC and Sadek Wahba.
- In today’s geopolitical contest, capital flows shape global alignments as much as treaties or troop deployments. Development finance and infrastructure investment are no longer just engines of economic growth—they are instruments of strategic influence. The U.S. must integrate values, speed, and scale into its financial diplomacy to compete with authoritarian models that use infrastructure to export control.
- This page explores how the U.S. and its allies can:
- Modernize development finance institutions (DFIs) and multilateral development banks (MDBs)
- Mobilize institutional and private capital at scale
- Offer transparent, values-driven alternatives to authoritarian debt diplomacy
- Target infrastructure investment as a tool of economic statecraft in the Indo-Pacific, Latin America, and Africa
🔑 Key Takeaway
To meet the competitive challenge, the U.S. must deploy economic tools that match our strengths, scale to global need, and reflect democratic values. Infrastructure finance remains one of the most underleveraged assets of American leadership.
Strategic Framing
- Democratic Development: Finance grounded in transparency, sovereignty, and long-term stability.
- Mobilizing Private Capital: Unlocking institutional investment by de-risking high-priority infrastructure projects.
- Multilateral Modernization: Reforming MDBs and DFIs to be faster, bolder, and better coordinated.
- Infrastructure as Influence: Competing with authoritarian models through quality, values-driven delivery.
Featured Events & Publications
🏛️ Engaging Administration or Congress, 📰 Op-Ed / Article / Quoted ✍️ Policy Brief 👥 Roundtable / Event 🎤 Speaking / Moderating 🎥 TV/Video 🌐 Global
Bolstering the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)
Strengthening Other U.S. Agencies Advancing Infrastructure Investment
Mobilizing Private Capital at Scale
- 👥 🇬🇧 London Roundtable - Activating Greater International Infrastructure - London - May 15, 2024 - Featured Adam Wang-Levine, Deputy Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary
MDB and DFI Reform
- 👥 🇯🇵 Roundtable with Japan International Cooperation Agency President Akihiko Tanaka at the Wilson Center - September 19, 202
Countering China's & Belt and Road
Addressing National Strategic Priorities
- 🎤 Bolstering Energy Security through Infrastructure Technologies - Moderated Wilson Center Roundtable - April 3, 2024
Regional Focus & Global Engagement
Policy Imperative
Financing international infrastructure expands America’s commercial opportunities as it lifts up partner nations—strengthening global alignment, stability, and the advance of American ideals. All of this can be achieved at minimal or no net cost to taxpayers. Yet America’s current level of engagement pales relative to our economic scale, the urgency of global needs, and the strategic investments made by authoritarian competitors. Infrastructure finance remains one of the most underleveraged levers of U.S. leadership in the modern era.
👉 Related Pages
🔷 Featured Insights
360° View of a US Sovereign Wealth Fund - Wilson Center Experts - February 13, 2025
International Infrastructure Projects: China's Investments Significantly Outpace the U.S., and Experts Suggest Potential Improvements to the U.S. Approach - GAO Report - Listed as a Contributor - September 12, 2024
Activating American Investment Overseas for a Freer, More Open World - Policy Brief with Dr. Jeff Kucik - March 5, 2024
Mobilizing Private Investment in International Infrastructure - Hosting Three Panels and Keynote Address at the Wilson Center - November 15, 2023
Reforming the Multilateral Development Banks for Global Structural Challenges in a Post-Pandemic World - Wilson Center Panel wiht former President of Peru Franciso Sagasti and Alexia Latortue, Assistant Secretary for International Trade and Development, US Department of the Treasury - July 19, 2023