Martin Gelin: Trump has now sabotaged his most important resource

50 years ago, a young American diplomat, Joseph Nye, received a tough assignment for the US Foreign Ministry. He would travel to France to convince the French government to conclude a lucrative agreement to sell Plutonium to Pakistan. The United States was worried that Pakistan was trying to develop nuclear weapons and had for several years, without success, tried to convince France about this, with economic and military means.

New finally won the negotiations. Neither by attracting carrots, nor threatening with whips, but by reporting American research that simply convinced France that the threat was real. They stopped the agreement because they trusted the United States, because they felt confidence in the US diplomat.

Two decades Later, Joseph Nye described just this as « soft power », soft power, when he popularized the concept in a best -selling book that changed the view of diplomacy and international relationships.

American nationalists like to consider the country as omnipotent – in fact its power has always grown out of good relationships with other countries

What really made the United States strong, explained Nye, was not only military and economic strength, but also the country's values, research, universities and the culture that was admired around the world.

It took two centuries for the United States to build that confidence from the outside world. It took almost two months for Donald Trump to destroy it.

Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz said this week that his most important foreign policy objective was now « independent from the United States ». He seemed to be amazed at the words that came out of his mouth: « I never thought I would say this in a television program. »

American nationalists like to consider the country as almighty, indifferent to what is happening in the rest of the world. But in fact, American power has always grown out of alliances and good relationships with other countries. Now this particular American superpower is being sabotaged at a furious pace.

Last week Elon Musk ran around on a stage and waved a chainsaw, along with Argentine President Javier Milei, which would symbolize their mutual passion for state cuts, what naive assessors call « efficiency ». But what is actually cut is the reputation of the United States.

Musk and Trump are in the process of tearing down almost all the institutions built by the United States since 1945 not only to strengthen the country's diplomatic position globally but to promote democracy and open culture globally. It is an ecosystem of diplomatic projects, aid activities and cultural exchanges that have been developed in the conviction that a peaceful and democratic world is better than chaos and anarchy. Not just as an idealistic project, but as a sharp self -interest to the United States.

It is not only a humanitarian crisis, but also a gigantic security policy self -goals for the United States

Trump and Musk's conscious slaughter on the soft power of US were immediately concretized with the attack on the world's largest national aid authority, USAID. There, already 67,000 aid workers and diplomats have lost their jobs, a billion dollars in aid have been frozen, food and supplies to millions in Syria, Somalia, Yemen and West Africa have been stopped in stock where it is rotten and destroyed. About four million people in 25 countries no longer receive medicine for, for example, HIV and malaria, with life -threatening consequences.

Millions can die, according to an analysis by David Ignatius in the Washington Post.

It's not just A humanitarian crisis, but also a gigantic security policy self -goal for the United States. They have stopped paying security guards who monitor prison camps for more than 10,000 IS warriors in Syria. They have abandoned support to regional allies such as Jordan and Taiwan. Comprehensive programs to tame terrorism in Indonesia, Iraq, Libya and Somalia have also been frozen.

Elon Musk praises this as a necessary slaughter on goofy aid programs and state waste. But even if you are now completely indifferent to the millions of lives that can be sacrificed, it is also the stability of the outside world that can be jeopardized.

Costs for this sabotage of US Image are incomprehensible

The last Trump was president and tried to carry out a similar chainsaw massacre on diplomatic operations warned former Defense Minister Jim Mattis that every dollar stored on aid and diplomacy « will instead need to be placed on ammunition ». If we are sabotaging the peacekeeping projects, much worse and more expensive war will soon be following.

At home For Elon Musk and his teenage dog hooligans an equally frenetic war against cultural institutions, research, science and democracy-promoting activities, with an illegal stop for the financing of the National Endowment for Democracy, created in 1983 to strengthen democracy and counteract communism in the world. But also through attacks on the Fulbright program for exchange students, where the United States now demands that other countries (including Sweden) censor all words that feel suspicious Woke, such as « gender equality », from the websites for the program.

The cost of this sabotage of US image is incomprehensible.

20 years ago Wrote one of the world's leading researchers on national brands, Simon Anholt, the book « Brand America – The Mother of All Brands ». Although sober people have always been aware of the US shortcomings, and a foreign policy that was often characterized by moral hypocrisy, it was reasonable to see the United States as the world's strongest brand for a long time – not because of military and economic power, but because of just soft power – Hollywood, Harvard and Silicon Valley. This explains why even those who hated the United States in theory were often charmed by everyday aspects of the country in practice.

Cold War was won to the same extent with soft power, diplomacy and cultural initiative as with hard power

The United States probably could not be founded at all without the soft power and diplomatic offensive towards allies. It was because Charma France they received the financial and military support needed to defeat the British crown of the American Revolutionary War.

The American Civil War could have ended much worse if it were not because the British aristocracy was convinced to refrain from supporting the southern states and slavery, since the slave resistance at home was so strong – even then it was the values, as much as the cannons, which decided. The Cold War was of course won equally with soft power, diplomacy and cultural initiatives as with hard power.

The fact that the United States has succeeded in taming China's world domination is also due to diplomatic progress in the Pacific region, where relations were strengthened with China's democratic neighboring countries, through long -term diplomatic relations, cultural exchanges, democracy -promoting activities and assistance. All that Trump and Musk now slaughter.

The timing could hardly be worse.

The world's most powerful Authoritarian regimes are now increasingly aggressive steps forward in the investments in public diplomacy, with a broad arsenal of everything from pure propaganda and hidden impact campaigns to softer initiatives such as sponsored museums and donations to universities. This applies not only to Russia and China, but also the dictatorships of the Gulf States. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar have long devoted themselves to a race in national brand building, with diplomacy, cultural initiatives and sports swashing – where they buy themselves in football, for example, to wash their reputation as a dictatorship.

Other authoritarian regimes understand that the geopolitical kind of future will be as much about relationship building and alliances as weapons and natural resources

Now Saudi Arabia copies the same strategy, with huge investments in cultural diplomacy and tourism, where they, among other things, build 25 new art museums only in Riyadh, which will be launched as a new Dubai or Doha. It is not because the regime suddenly fell in love with abstract expressionism; It is because they understand that the geopolitical kind of future will be as much about relationship building and alliances as about weapons and natural resources.

On the three -year anniversary of Putin's invasion of Ukraine I walk past the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. It is perhaps the closest we come to a global institution for soft power and cultural values. Along the facade hangs a campaign with the text « Ce Qui Nous Rend Humain », « what makes us human ». In the background, pictures are visible on World Heritage and timeless cultural treasures.

Our planet boils of inhuman violence and powerful despots; Here is a small oasis where they try to preserve what not only makes our civilization meaningful, but possible at all.

In the UNESCO constitution from 1945 there is a line written by Archibald Macleish, an American poet and diplomat, which was the US broadcast when the institution was founded: « Since war begins in people's consciousness, it is in people's consciousness that the defense of peace must be built up. »

If the United States now abandons the idea that they themselves articulated, only other democracies can fill its vacuum. Everything we live for is at stake.

Read more articles by Martin Gelin:
« The manosphere won the election for Trump – now they are waiting for their reward »
« Historical crisis – time for Europe to stand up for democracy ”
« Ethnic cleansing and extended land mass is at the heart of Trump's policy ”