It seems that successive administrations have lost sight of the benefits of soft power and only go for the hard version instead. Having world-leading institutions with the ability to advise other goes a lot further, for a fraction of the cost.

Courtesy of Hollywood (more soft power, but with a more dubious pedigree) there is no situation where the CDC does not, absolutely, have it's shit together. For the price of a single aircraft carrier you could probably make that a reality.