Declive del liderazgo de EE. UU. con Trump y ascenso de China como opción del multilateralismo global

Abstract

This paper studies how global leadership resulting from the Bretton Woods agreements has suffered a decay process, as demonstrated by 2008 financial crisis and the fragility of US, Japan and UE economies, whose importance for world economy has weakened. Meanwhile, President D. Trump fosters the breakdown of multilateralism and, therefore, undermines the global leadership that his country has exercised since World War II. Besides, multilateral financial institutions created in Bretton Woods are not flexible enough to stimulate the economy of developing countries due to their limitations in terms of capital structure and the scarcity of resources. In this context, the most dynamic regions of the globe, China and the Asian countries, could make use of their large financial and technological surpluses, accumulated during the last decades, to boost with greater strength both global economy and institutionalism. The Chinese initiative for the construction of a "New Silk Road" is offering the world a different leadership approach –focused on the construction of infrastructure and the unification of acts of willingness to make multiple projects come true, mostly in developing countries– that enables new political spaces to expand multilateralism and fill-up the gaps left by the US.