Over the past several decades, the United States has led globally on expansion of a rules-based trade agenda. However, the United States has not had a development agenda of comparable priority. The Bretton Woods economic institutions and the leading regional multilateral development banks (MDBs), which have formed the core multilateral financial architecture since World War II, today face skepticism as to their long-term relevance, particularly in the face of declining US support. This report, A Path to US Leadership in the Asia-Pacific: Revitalizing the Multilateral Financial Institutions, authored by Olin Wethington and Robert A. Manning, focuses on the challenge of revitalizing these institutions on behalf of an economic order aligned with the strategic interests of the United States and its closest Asian allies.
