Controversial and drastic decisions in foreign policy taken by the second Trump administration has resulted in the decline of US soft power, creating a vacuum at the global cultural diplomacy landscape. While the US remains active internationally, it increasingly adopts a transactional bilateral approach—domination without cultural hegemony. Which international actors might fill this soft power vacuum? What can Europe—and Germany in particular—do to navigate a transformed geopolitical and geoconomics landscape? How can they use external cultural policy (ECP) to advance broader universalist liberal democratic principles? What decisions do Europe and Germany need to fill the vacuum and break free from being a passive actor amidst the assertiveness of the US and China's strategic rise?
