A World Without America’s Deep Pockets, Written by Gimba Kakanda

If you think the United States government was throwing around those billions in aid for nothing, it’s only because you don’t understand how it has managed to remain a superpower since the Second World War. Those billions of dollars dispensed year in, year out have secured what is arguably the most enduring soft power in human history.

Nations give aid because they can’t win the world over through guns and mortar alone. They do so by assuring all-weather partnerships and offering economically uncertain nations a lifeline to bounce back—neutralising adversaries in the process.

While hard power allowed the US to tame Soviet aggression through the doctrine of mutually assured destruction during the Cold War, Washington’s success was driven largely outside the battlefield. From the Marshall Plan of 1948—which signalled to European powers that a new world order was prepared to spoon-feed them—to the US leadership of the Bretton Woods institutions, Washington has never faltered in understanding that generosity is its own form of power.

The aid the US dispenses around the world is not the unconditional charity it may seem. It has bought the country friends and allies, and even a modest understanding of the chaos and uncertainties of the international system would make one realise that these strategic friendships have saved America a great deal in protecting its interests and presence worldwide.

From Hollywood to the Voice of America, the US has marketed itself as the cradle of civilisation, welcoming the best talents and minds—including dissidents fleeing rival nations and economic migrants from places with less opportunities. This may have cost the average American a fortune, but do you realise the implications, for United States, of a world where they lack soft power? A world where even the symbolic siting of the United Nations in an American city is opposed, as renegade leaders like Muammar Gaddafi once attempted? It would be a world far costlier for the everyday American if Washington still intends to be a superpower.

The portrait of American benevolence has been sustained through programmes like USAID. And in case you don’t know, every nation it saves from economic collapse is one less threat to America. This strategy has helped Washington remain relevant and dominant by ensuring its values—democracy, free markets, and human rights—function as the constitution of the world.

The decline of American hegemony, which has kept international relations theorists busy, may well be the shock that President Donald Trump was preparing for—a world where the American comes first, as though that hasn’t always been the case. Whether the policy of isolationism will favour America is a question for experts and history to determine. But then again, we’ve seen the outcome of Brexit. Whatever the case, every nation must brace for impact and look inward for stability.

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