The “American Dream.” The hope for a better life inside the borders of a nation once seen as the leader of the free world. The American influence on the rest of the world is undeniable. Since the United States’s emergence on the global stage, we’ve been playing a strategic game of PR relations which have continued to push United States influence into the center of issues across the world. Through careful efforts, the United States has cultivated itself as an image as the bastion of freedom across the globe. We are not just a military superpower reigning supreme due to possession of nuclear weapons and the best funded military in the world. The United States has relied on soft power—our influence across the world—to dominate the global stage. President Trump’s foreign policy seems less concerned about soft power and more about grandstanding. Trump’s vision for US policy seems to be that everyone will bow in the face of the “superpower” and take devastating investment blows and harsh tariffs in stride. Threats against sovereign territories such as Panama and Greenland pose a serious risk to security and the balance of power. The truth is, the United States will not survive without soft power. In the loss of United States investment, developing nations and the Global South will increasingly turn towards Chinese Belt and Road investments, further weakening US power. We’ve been playing a game since 1948, one President Trump wants to reinvent—but he has forgotten we’re still playing on the same board.
The Marshall Plan in the wake of World War II was the United State’s grand entry into foreign aid and soft power. Between 1948 and 1951, the US contributed $13.3 billion to the reconstruction of Europe. During this same time, we created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and founded the United Nations, in the interests of collective security and international cooperation respectively. These institutions have stood by us to this day. The United States has gained immense soft power through its contributions to reconstruction and the UN. Our foreign aid has built up a global system where the United States remains a key actor, critical not only as a trade partner and an ally but also as a center for development in health, technology, and infrastructure. And we’ve benefitted in large. The United States veto power in the Security Council has allowed us to protect national interests from international action, being the country to utilize this power the most in the history of the Security Council.
It would be impossible to say that United States foreign policy did not also contribute to the devastation of much of the Global South due to imperialism and colonialism. Our contributions in the form of aid were sent, in many cases, to nations where our allies had been the ones to originally ravish the land and stunt development. Since the end of traditional imperialism and colonialism with the close of World War II, the United States has built its influence. With the end of the Congress of Vienna’s hold over much of Africa and Asia, the United States championed an era of progress for developing nations that has lasted through much of the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st.
Founded as an original committee of the United Nations, the World Health Organization has championed for international health since its inception. Historical proof of the organization’s relevance persists in their eradication of smallpox. The only human disease to be completely eradicated, smallpox was officially declared eradicated in 1980, after a series of campaigns including the Smallpox Eradication Programme of 1959. During this program, the United States freely supplied vaccines and funding for the program, which also served as a highlight of cooperation during the Cold War. In a more modern context, the WHO has sought to develop International Health Standards and launch a new “pandemic agreement.” It is undeniable that the WHO helped push the world through the COVID-19 pandemic. World Health Organization projects have taken American healthcare workers and supplies across the world, delivering critical materials, personnel, and infrastructure to the world’s most vulnerable. The notion that the United States can simply up and leave this organization, after being its largest donor, is nearsighted and doesn’t address the significance of the soft power brought to the United States. The United Nations and other foreign aid programs fund projects across the developing world—which build interest, trust, and rapport with developing nations.
It is foolish to think that in the wake of the United States, developing nations will not look to a new superpower to fund their schools and hospitals and invest in their people. As the United States pulls aid from organizations like the World Health Organization, or their support from Ukraine, Chinese and Russian rhetoric around their “new multipolar system” gain admiration. China and Russia are posing a different outlook to developing nations. They are contrasting the United State’s neocolonialism with anti-colonial messaging—aimed at increasing their own power abroad. China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure plan proposed in 2013, has gained partners in every continent but North America and Antarctica. Nearly all of Africa has signed onto the plan, enjoying the benefits of Chinese-built trade infrastructure they’ve been in desperate need of since 1948. President Trump seeks to weaken China with a 60% tariff on all goods, but what he has forgotten is that while he has been damaging relations, China has been building pathways into new markets. When the United States pulls out, BRI funding sweeps in with public works projects. As their investment grows, while that of the US shrinks, we are losing serious soft power that will ultimately determine the world order.
We cannot leave the world behind. President Trump’s new foreign policy seems to have one goal—America First. However, it is outlandish to think that America can be first in anything without allies and without the world behind us. The state of American foreign policy rests largely on policies that seem to rely on the notion of the United States as a historic hegemon. But the truth is, the United States is losing influence. The massive failure of involvement in Afghanistan, the truth behind US actions towards Latin America during the Cold War, and staunch support of Israel in the face of their own apartheid have all severely damaged our footing with the Global South and developing nations. By the time United States foreign policy gets back into shape and starts selling the American Dream again, there will be no more interested buyers.
