New study by ifa and the Hertie School examines nine countries in an age of political extremes.
The Art Biennale in Venice, international scholarships for students or the European Capitals of Culture such as Chemnitz 2025 – foreign cultural policy, an essential element of so-called soft power, has many faces. The global rise of new nationalism is having a direct effect on it. How are the global soft power leaders handling this issue? What exactly are the current challenges? What influence does this development have on the role of external cultural policy within the international system? The new study “The New Nationalisms and the Future of Cultural Relations: External Cultural Policy in an Age of Political Extremes” published by ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and the Hertie School examines these questions.
For their joint study, the authors Professor Helmut K. Anheier, Edward L. Knudsen (University of Oxford, Hertie School) and Sofia Todd-Tombini analysed and compared the external cultural policy of the global soft power leaders Germany, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Russia, Turkey and the USA in the context of growing nationalism.
Professor Helmut K. Anheier, Senior Professor of Sociology at the Hertie School: “Soft power has become a hard power factor used by states to advance national and geopolitical interests, as cur-rently shown in particular by examples from China and Russia. Germany and the entire European Union should better coordinate their external cultural policy and place it on a solid legal basis to make it watertight against nationalist influences at home and abroad.“
Gitte Zschoch, Secretary General of ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen: “This new study shows that non-European countries are increasingly using soft power to advance their interests. That is why it is all the more important to make our approach more crisis-proof.”
Europe must react to growing new nationalism
All nine countries studied are major soft power players and, at the same time, are experiencing different forms and dimensions of growing nationalism. In Germany and Great Britain, external cultural policy institutions are better protected by the principle of independence. While they receive state funding, they act independently in terms of content and have their own organisational structures. Yet even in Germany, the authors see a creeping influence of nationalist tendencies. In particular, Germany and Europa need to be better prepared for the increasingly aggressive new nationalist narratives. The authors call for better coordination and defensiveness vis-à-vis nationalist appropriation domestically and abroad.
Growing dominance of China and Russia challenge Western cultural policy
The authors also anticipate an increase in external cultural policy marked by nationalism in China, Russia and Turkey, which would pose major challenges to Germany and its partners.For example, the authors state that China, under Xi Jinping’s government, has adapted its external cultural policy to national interests. This has resulted in less reticence and massive investments in Chinese cultural and educational institutions. The authors also attest that Russia is attempting to counter the democratic model of society with an alternative model, particularly through cooperation with post-Soviet states, but also through bilateral agreements with the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).
Catalogue of measures: Strengthening defence mechanisms
In order to meet the challenges of international new nationalism, it is important to clearly distin-guish its strategies from those of the EU. The EU builds its activities of international cultural exchange, its ‘soft power’, on trust and understanding. To strengthen the EU's soft power capacities, the study recommends that democratic parties and cultural institutions implement four sets of measures:
1. strengthening of the autonomy of external cultural institutions to promote their dynamism and credibility.
2. better coordination of European institutions in order to specifically combat disinformation or state propaganda.
3. strengthening of the European narrative that emphasises freedom, justice and prosperity and specifically communicates the common European heritage as a success.
4. support of civil society actors that strengthen principles such as democracy, human rights and cultural diversity at home and abroad.
Read the full report here.
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