In 2011, Congress placed $300 million in the hands of private investors with an unusual mandate: grow Egypt's economy on behalf of the American people. Fifteen years later, the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund has invested in more than 150 companies, helped create over 75,000 jobs, and grown to an estimated value of more than $500 million. And it has managed all this in a country rocked by revolution, political instability, and currency collapse. At a moment when Americans are questioning the costs of hard power in the Middle East and the value of foreign assistance, the Fund's track record raises provocative questions about how the US projects its influence abroad. Can private-sector investment succeed where troops and traditional aid have struggled? Why should taxpayer dollars back ventures in faraway markets? And can this model of "soft power ...