Opinion | Trump destroys an American core. The world will notice.

In the late 1980s, Joseph Nye, the Harvard politician who died this month, developed the concept of the “Soft Power”. Its central premise that the United States improve their global influence through promoting values ​​such as human rights and democracy has led the US foreign policy for decades in both republican and democratic administrations.

Donald Trump made it clear that he fundamentally rejected this vision. As President, he has ordered a comprehensive revision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which paralyzes his ability to promote American values ​​abroad. At the center of these efforts are drastic cuts at the office for democracy, human rights and work – the core institution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote soft power, which I led under President Barack Obama. If the congress does not intervene, the role of the role of the office will affect America's ability to question authoritarianism, to support democratic movements and to provide an independent analysis of the information of foreign policy. The long -term result will be a united states that is weaker, less principle and increasingly superfluous, since authoritarian powers such as Russia and China offer their own transaction models of global engagement.

The office for democracy, human rights and work was created in 1977 with cross -party congress support, in which the legislator was looking for more influence on foreign policy after the Vietnam War and the support of the American regime in countries such as Chile and South Korea. President Jimmy Carter's religious convictions and the deep commitment to human rights give the young office early dynamics. Nevertheless, his purpose was always practical: to ensure that US foreign assistance and trading decisions were informed by credible assessments of human rights conditions around the world. That is why the office prepares human rights reports every year, the congress prepares.

In his early years it tried to defend its existence. Foreign governments were annoyed in their annual reports and attacked their legitimacy. Many traditionalists of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered their focus on human rights as a non -helpful distraction from real politics issues, with which they are much more comfortable. It was also criticism of hypocrisy, mainly from left, for the condemnation of the records of other countries in the face of unresolved human rights problems here in the United States. Others pointed out exactly that the United States, even when the Human Rights reports of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs documented serious abuses, governments such as Ferdinand E. Marcos' Philippines, Mobutu Sees Sekos Zaire, Hosni Mubarak's Egypt and numerous military regime in Latin America continued to provide considerable help.

These tensions have not disappeared. But the office has developed over almost five decades to confront it. Governments, companies, judges and non -governmental organizations are all dependent on their annual state reports. It plays the main role in preventing the United States from financing foreign security forces that violate human rights. And his political engagement has led the US approach to international conflicts, repressive regimens and civil wars.

This progress is now at risk. The proposed “reforms” of the Trump government will annoy the capacity of my former agency in three important ways.