A continuation of the soft power debate at Foreign Policy.com
Ken Adelman, former US Ambassador to the UN proffers that if if Congress cuts the foreign aid budget, US influence will be unaffected. He cites a cohort of data that show that US aid has not improved the behavior of certain countries.
His argument is a straw-man for two reasons. First, he looks selectively at only certain recipients. There are also US allies who receive aid, such as Columbia, Mexico, the Philippines, Georgia, to name a few. Second, Adelman misunderstands what soft-power is. Aid is hard power, something tangible: you could cash the checks the US rights and throw all the money in the air. Soft-power is something entirely different. When ideals attract another country and induce it into a favorable course of action, that is soft power.
True, America's ideals don't promote themselves. Dedicated civil servants are necessary to promote our ideals. True, not everyone is attracted to US ideals, culture, etc., but no one will be if America does not promote itself. That is why cutting the State Department budget is so dangerous. Without money and the necessary staff, we cannot promote.
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