Aid, Empire, and the Art of Coercion... When Diplomacy Deceives and Weaponizes Charm of Foreign Policy

"America’s cultural hegemony has always been a velvet glove covering the iron fist of its foreign policy." ~ Arundhati Roy

"We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality... We're history’s actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." ~ Unnamed senior Bush administration official (often attributed to Karl Rove)

"Aid is just another arm of foreign policy. It's not given altruistically. It's given with strings attached, to build dependency, to extract allegiance." ~ Dambisa Moyo

"The consequence of American imperial overreach is not dominance, but resistance, revolution, and collapse." ~ Chalmers Johnson

"Sharp power is not about attraction or coercion per se. It is about the manipulation of information, suppression of independent voices, and covert influence." ~ Christopher Walker and Jessica Ludwig, National Endowment for Democracy

Political power is not neither purely soft nor hard, but something more cunning, like a blade wrapped in silk. When a dominant power crafts its influence through culture, economic enticements, and educational outreach, it creates an almost irresistible pull. Canada lives it over generations. Aid, trade agreements, behind closed door meeting political alignments, scholarship programs, even pop culture, these are strategies that draw nations into alignment.

But behind this soft power exterior lies something more sinister. Naval fleets patrol nearby waters. Sanctions squeeze economies. Intelligence agencies sow unrest. This isn’t diplomacy, it’s coercion and complex manipulation masked as generosity. Dependence is manufactured with one hand, while a backstabbing weapon is held in the other.

Yet sharp power has consequences. Those pressured by it may cautiously resist. Some turns to rival powers, develop alternative financial systems, or establish independent alliances.

Think of nations like Cuba, Iran, Russia, and China, whose resistance has often been fueled by attempts to control them. Over time, the moral high ground once claimed by liberal ideals erodes, revealing the imperialistic and hegemonic hand too clearly. The examples of Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and soon the historically Great Persian people of Iran... regime change speak volumes.

In the short term, such hegemonic imperialistic power may seem successful. But in the long run, it cultivates enemies instead of partners. The outcome? Proxy conflicts, renewed Cold War dynamics, and, perhaps, decline of extreme expensive trillions of dollars of overreach of an empire. History may remember such hegemonic and imperialistic power, not for its strength, but for orchestrating its own downfall.