Alicia Phillips Mandaville's blog

I grew up in the deep south of Reagan’s America. My father was a veteran and I lived near two Air Force bases, so just about everyone around me talked constantly about how great this country is. Maybe that is why during Rex Tillerson’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of State yesterday, some deep seated part of me couldn’t help but love his metaphor for the state of the world. “…We’ve got a tough hand of cards … and we’re just gonna play that hand out... because what I know is that America still holds all the aces.”  

There’s a funny aspect of global development, where the more remote parts of the world you see, the more it seems to be connected. Last week, watching the board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) approve a $425 million investment in Niger, I felt a real sense of many things coming together.