As America celebrates 250 years, nearly 500 business, veteran, humanitarian, farmer, faith, and bipartisan political leaders converged in Washington to share real stories of how America wins when America leads.

Over the past decade, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – a series of development and investment projects across Central Asia, Africa, and South America – has extended more than $182 billion in loans to 49 African countries, building roads, railways, ports, and power facilities with few governance conditions attached. These finance projects have positioned China as Africa’s largest lender, with 30 of 49 African countries now on interest payments than on public health.

This debt has become a geopolitical exploit for China, especially in regions like the Sahel where security and economic vulnerabilities are increasingly urgent. But it also presents a critical opening for the U.S. to demonstrate a different approach that prioritizes accountability, partnership, and sustainable economic growth.

In a hyper-connected world where diseases cross borders with increasing ease, American leadership in disease prevention and treatment is vital to protect Americans at home and abroad. In 2024, 40.8 million people—and 4.2 million Americans—were living with HIV worldwide. Each year 630,000 people die of HIV-related illnesses globally. It is in the United States’ strategic interest to work with urgency toward an HIV-free generation.

Right now, we are seeing growing instability across the Western Hemisphere, from increasing gang violence in Haiti, a worsening humanitarian and economic crisis in Cuba, to ongoing political uncertainty in Venezuela. For many Americans, these crises may seem distant, but for South Florida they hit close to home… With these challenges at the forefront of our minds, we traveled to Washington last month as part of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s Veterans for Smart Power network to make the case for sustained investments in international assistance and diplomacy.

Since 2002, over 15,000 high school students have said “YES”, immersing themselves in a host country through the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program. These students live with host families and attend local high schools, sharing their cultures, learning critical languages, and building life-long relationships. The YES program facilitates citizen diplomacy through cultural exchange at a community level. The impact contributes to global security as students build positive ties between future leaders and their host countries.

In an increasingly digital world, technological access translates to power, prosperity and security. The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the past five years alone has led to breakthroughs in human productivity, transforming global industries from healthcare to finance, government and education. With only 16% of the global population accessing generative AI tools, major technology powers, primarily the U.S. and China, are engaged in an intensifying race to secure market control and global influence.

The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition hosted three roundtables in Chicago, Detroit, and Dallas at the end of April with Paul Marin, Director of Public Affairs for the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). Convening local business, nonprofit, agriculture, and government leaders, the discussions focused on how smart, strategic investments in international assistance and diplomacy—through agencies like USTDA—help America compete and win on the world stage.

On the heels of the nationwide events, USGLC asked Paul Marin a few questions about how USTDA strengthens America’s global competitiveness and why early-stage investment in emerging markets is key to unlocking opportunities for American businesses.

As China ramps up its control over the world’s critical minerals market – producing over 90% through separation and refining processes – the United States is facing an uphill battle in a critical mineral rivalry that poses a direct threat to America’s economic and national security.

The Indo-Pacific is a strategic arena for this rivalry, with Pacific Island nations as a specific focus. From resource competition to geographic advantages for American interests, American engagement with the Pacific Islands will be a major factor in outcompeting China…

I had the privilege of flying the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules (“Herc”) as a navigator while on active duty in the U.S. Air Force from 1996 to 2004. Distinguishing itself in Vietnam through its versatility and ability to operate on unimproved airfields, the C-130 proved there’s little it can’t do. From providing lethal close air support on the battlefield, to airdropping humanitarian assistance where security concerns preclude landing (recently, for example, in Gaza), to landing on blacked out dirt strips to offload essential cargo, the C-130 is a can-do platform with can-do aircrews that demonstrates the critical importance of using all the tools of American power—development, and diplomacy alongside defense— to build a better, safer world…

For the residents of Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia, the global competition between the United States and China is right at their doorstep. Both countries have selected the town as an endpoint for their African regional railroad projects, making it the nexus from which American and Chinese tracks will diverge. The people of Kapiri Mposhi are, quite literally, facing a fork in the road, and the path they choose will have real consequences for the Sino-American race for influence…