Trump is eroding U.S. global influence by halting funds for World Health Organization

President Trump’s decision on Tuesday that he will suspend payments to the World Health Organization (WHO) may further erode U.S. global influence around the world, and invite rivals such as China and Russia to fill the vacuum, according to Ian Hurd, professor of political science at Northwestern University and director of the Weinberg College Center for International and Area Studies.

“International organizations are tools that governments use to advance their interests,” said Hurd. 

“What’s ironic is that those global governance mechanisms have always been useful for American foreign policy. Trump is setting fire to his tools, and further eroding American power,” he added.

Professor Hurd also said that the White House has been trying to reduce funding to WHO since Trump got elected.

“So in a sense, this might be an opportunistic moment where the administration saw a chance to achieve a policy goal they’ve long held – one that carries animosity to international systems that are needed at critical moments like the one we’re in now,” he added.  

While it’s hard to know how seriously to take the many pronouncements president Trump makes, professor Hurd said, it will be an opportunity for China and others to step in and take up that influence.

Ian Hurd is professor of political science at Northwestern University. He is the author of How to Do Things With International Law and After Anarchy, and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of International Organizations (Oxford 2017) and The UN Security Council and the Politics of International Authority (Routledge 2008). His research on international law and politics combines contemporary global affairs with attention to the conceptual frames that serve to make sense of the world.

Professor Hurd is available for media interviews. Please contact Mohamed Abdelfattah at mohamed@northwestern.edu