US global standing erodes as aid is cut and military power grows

NEW YORK (MNTV) — The United States faces a significant challenge to its global standing as growing numbers of people abroad question Washington’s role in the world and the value of its traditional model of leadership, a new international survey suggests.

The 2026 survey by the Rockefeller Foundation and Focaldata, of 35,399 adults across 34 countries, found confidence in major powers increasingly fragmented: neither the U.S. nor China commands majority support to lead, and 61 percent said they would back a coalition addressing global problems without either superpower. 

Rajiv J. Shah, the foundation’s president and a former USAID administrator, argues the findings reflect an erosion of the moral authority the U.S. once drew from humanitarian assistance and development — authority weakened, he says, as Washington cut aid while leaning harder on military power, including through the closure of USAID.

Global official development assistance fell 23.1 percent in 2025, from $215.1 billion to $174.3 billion, the largest annual drop on record, according to the foundation, which cites analysis estimating that continued cuts could contribute to more than nine million additional deaths by 2030. 

Yet Americans remain supportive of engagement: a June 2026 Echelon Insights survey found 54 percent viewed foreign aid favorably, 90 percent backed humanitarian and disease-prevention programs, and 72 percent said aid makes the U.S. safer. 

Shah argues Washington should move beyond a donor-recipient model toward investment in local economies, health systems and infrastructure — pointing to initiatives such as Mission 300, which aims to expand electricity access across Africa — casting the real debate not as engagement versus isolation, but over what form U.S. engagement should take.