While most of the world sees the United States, China and Russia as the top three leaders when it comes to hard power, with soft power – the ability of a country to exert influence through culture, political values or foreign policy – it's another story. According to the Best Countries data,
the U.S. outshines its major competitors in terms of variables such as human rights, trustworthiness, government transparency and being a place people would want to live in. While the U.S. is in the top 20 in those categories, China and Russia are in the middle or toward the end of the pack.