Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office has been a devastating blow for American soft power, the network of global institutions that structurally tie foreign economies to US capital. Under his second administration, programs like the US Agency for International Development have become shells of their past iterations, leaving countries dependent on US support struggling in the short term and US interests weakened on the world stage for years if not decades to come. A case in point is the US’s disastrous war against Iran. After suffering generations of brutal…
