On August 5-9, I embarked on a wonderful academic experience in Manchester, UK. I’m grateful for the opportunity to present my paper, “Network Fragility after USAID: Donor Centrality & the Bridging Link Fallacy in Development Governance,” at the 2026 PolNet Conference at the University of Manchester. This was my sixth PolNet conference, an academic community that I have appreciated for almost ten years. I’m truly grateful for such a successful & beautiful conference experience. I presented a refinement of work I first shared earlier this year at the Social Capital Conference: an emerging framework from my ongoing research on the efficacy of development policy networks. I explore network resilience and…