Sri Lanka, March 3 -- The move to wind up USAID is a reflection of US President Donald Trump's disdain for social welfare across the world and also the use of soft power as an instrument of foreign policy.

It reflects his preference for transactional relations based on hard economic and political bargaining with just one objective, namely, the advancement of some narrowly defined US interests, namely, the maximisation of tangible benefits for the US. Trump's approach is completely non-ideological and amoral, if not immoral.

Elon Musk (left) and Donald Trump



While some applaud his pragmatic approach depending on cost-benefit analysis, others worry that China (and to a smaller extent Russia) could fill the gap in soft power. That woul...