One way to look at how the US influences other countries is to look at how it uses power—both hard power and soft power.

“We can attempt to use military power to get countries to do what we want, or we can also use economic power to get countries to do what we want,” says Dr. Peter Meilaender. “So things like tariffs or sanctions would be thought of usually as hard power.”

Meilaender says that when a country uses good will to influence another country, that can be called “soft power.” Meilaender is a professor of political science at western New York’s Houghton University, where he is also Dean of Religion, Humanities, and Global Studies.

“All the forms of development aid that we might engage in—whether that is health clinics or education for women, building wells, delivering food, assisting with famine relief, refugee services—all of those things could be forms of economic soft power,” he says.

For decades the US helped people and maintained influence through the relief and development work of the United States Agency for International Development. As the Trump administration’s decision to downsize USAID goes through the courts, many are watching for the effect on American influence in the world. Christians, specifically, may also be watching, as many “soft power” initiatives dovetail with Jesus’ call to feed the hungry, house the homeless, and care for the stranger in the land.

“When we think in particular about development initiatives, those are pretty clearly ways in which we are doing good in the world,” Meilaender says. “And it also happens to win us some good will. And that’s of course a nice side benefit. But it certainly is kind of fulfilling that commandment to feed the hungry, clothe the needy, etc.”

While soft power can come in the form of economic relief, American culture and values have also contributed to American soft power in the world.

“And in particular we would talk about values such as democracy, human rights, liberty, equality—these are things that have a lot of appeal around the world, and people associate them with the United States, or at least have associated them with the United States, and that has been a source of influence for us, also.”

The fate of USAID is expected to have a direct impact on famine relief, refugee education, and disease containment—and also on the way people around the world view the US. 

“I don’t think that we should underestimate the way in which this does harm the image of the United States around the world,” Meilaender says. “A country that many people across the globe have looked to for so long as a kind of beacon of ideals for humanity, when it appears to be only interested in sort of doing things where there’s something clearly in it for itself, I think that changes the way people look at us.”

Hear more from Houghton University’s Dr. Peter Meilaender in this podcast.