The United States is sending aid to people who, apparently, do not want it...Washington decided last week to waive restrictions and hand over its $1.3 billion annual assistance to Egypt...But a new Gallup survey shows Egyptians have grown weary of U.S. aid.

On the opposing side, there are those who cite Kuwait in the sixties, seventies and a substantial part of the eighties when its leadership in development, business, foreign aid and cultural production afforded it a soft power influence many times its counterparts.

Americans may be more interested in domestic issues with gas prices rising sharply, unemployment still high, and continued instability in the market -- but a coherent message from Secretary Clinton that stresses the important role that foreign aid plays in an increasingly unstable democratic world is in dire need.

This past year offered fresh proof that the world we live in is ever dynamic and that there must be new ways to think about the role the U.S. will play in the world in the coming years. USIP’s Executive VP Tara Sonenshine shared her views on the state of the world, America’s role in it, and what USIP is doing on the ground to help build peace and stability.

Aid diplomacy is an important part of the overall U.S. public diplomacy strategy. As a global power, the U.S. is part of international efforts...to alleviate poverty, provide humanitarian relief, support economic and social policies, and address global problems.

China as the dominant international economic and political force in Africa epitomizes the most dramatic shift in geopolitics since the Soviet Union collapsed. Yet the United States, Africa's traditional trading partner, seem incapable of responding to the challenge and retaking the initiative. Instead, its response has been to wring its hands in despair and make ineffectual noises about human rights and democracy.

Others rightly resent Pakistan’s unwillingness to undertake tough economic reforms as a step toward helping itself. Still others wonder why we should assist a country where virulent anti-Americanism is pervasive.

If the Confucius Institute's activities here are a benign example of China's soft power, some strategic analysts are more pessimistic about its effects more broadly in South-East Asia and beyond. The US Council on Foreign Relations has pointed out that many authoritarian and developing nations are looking to China as a model for a non-democratic path to economic growth.