The End of U.S. Soft Power

Listen to this episode commercial free at https://angryplanetpod.comU.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the interim head of USAID, for however much longer the agency lasts. For 60 years, the massive bureaucracy was a vehicle for American soft power abroad. Trump, Elon Musk, and all their creatures don’t like it. It might soon be gone.Nicole Widdersheim is the deputy Washington director of Human Rights Watch with a long history of humanitarian work. She’s here on Angry Planet today to walk us through this new era of the American Empire.A brief history of USAIDThe size and cost of USAIDCritiquing a bureaucracyPeople like you when you give them stuffDefense, diplomacy, developmentThe real world consequences of the ending of foreign aidA mallet, not a scalpelSupporters need to get cynicalUSAID did a bad job of defending itselfAmericans don’t care about the human costThe Glorious Republic of Jasonvania wants food aidCongressionally approved rice to North KoreaIt turns out the cruelty is, in fact, the pointAt USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs DeepNo one read those reports on AfghanistanHow China’s “Belt and Road” actually worksThe end of USAID will screw over American farmersTrumpism is a lack of consistency Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.