Week 6
This week I had the chance to attend a forum hosted by Duke University’s DC Office titled, “China’s Belt and Road, Altering the Global Ecosystem”. The panel of speakers included Jackson Ewing a Senior Fellow with the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Marcus D. King a Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University, Joanna Lewis a Professor at Georgetown, and Elizabeth Losos a Senior Fellow with the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. The focus of the discussion was how China’s Belt and Road Initiative could potentially affect the global ecosystem, and how the answer to that question is still unclear.
While pursuing my master’s in public policy last academic year, I drafted several papers on the Belt and Road Initiative, as it is at the forefront of international development concerns. Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative with a specific focus on developing infrastructure in Asia, Europe, and Africa in order to further trade capacities. However, this is not without some issues. Chinese Official Development Assistance (ODA) is hard to track, but William & Mary’s Aid Data has actually produced one of the leading collections of Chinese ODA flows. Last year, I used this data to examine the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative. In a specific research project, I examined how Chinese aid and infrastructure projects have affected the ecosystem in Cambodia. Specifically, Chinese funded dams have changed the flow of the Mekong River into the Tonlé Sap. In short, rural Cambodians rely on the seasonal flows of the Tonlé Sap for their livelihood and the Chinese dams have the potential to displace hundreds of thousands.
This summer at USAID, I have found that the research that I conducted during my Master’s courses have perfectly supplemented my legal education. Projects like the one mentioned above give me a deeper understanding of Aid projects, which allows me to focus on the legal side of my work. USAID has been a great place to work and apply my academic experiences.