Since the United States first awoke on the global scene, it has maintained a vivid and endurant cultural influence. From the get-go, the British colonies had a salient print culture, as high literacy rates meant high demand for newspapers and literature. Armed with the written word, America’s proclaimed values and principles flew beyond the nation’s borders. They became its most profitable export, grossing the young country significant moral authority and inspiring revolutions in Europe and South America.

Then it is no wonder that America became the “Mother of Exiles,” as the Statue of Liberty puts it. In a positive feedback loop, the country’s sterling image of freedom and prosperity fueled immigration, further enriching its reputation and success. This form of soft power — noncoercive cultural clout — was essential to America’s rise as a great power with global sway.

Of course, the engines of American culture did not shut down at that stage. In the 20th century, pop culture, through elements like consumerism and cinema, became the new salvo of influence. Technological developments allowed Americans to promote their cultural works worldwide.

Even in the Soviet Union, American clothes and valuables earned prestige. I wouldn’t be surprised if America produced more household names, popular appliances and recognizable brands than any other nation during this time.

These two aspects, moral imagery and pop culture, sleekly supported the United States’s diplomatic endeavors, and some American leaders in the 20th century recognized this. According to archived documents from The George Washington University, in the 1950s, in the 1950s, diplomat George Kennan shrewdly targeted the threat of racial inequality. This was a long-simmering subject that had finally reached the headlines. Kennan feared that neutral countries in the Cold War would lend no ear to a state that proclaimed equality but refused to enact it. His peers in the Supreme Court agreed and struck down segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, risking domestic change to preserve America’s soft power.

However, the dynamics have changed, and America’s cultural and moral soft power is retreating from that imposing climax. First, authoritarian governments have been able to censor American media and detangle themselves from American culture. Case in point, in Russia, since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, many Western brands have left, and the Russian government has significantly tightened its grip over information, according to an article from Foreign Affairs. Thus, in my view, cross-cultural interactions are far easier to silence.

However, anti-American governments are not the only cause of the nation’s loss of soft power. Many nations have simply caught up, producing their own prestigious goods and popular media. Economic growth throughout the world has produced competing cultural and material products. I believe that, for Russia, the standard of living has greatly improved to the point that fascination with Western products is no longer necessary.

Finally, many people may have lost faith in America’s moral posture. Unsuccessful, controversial, and long wars have sparked ill feeling, while domestic upheaval does little to make the American system look stable and productive.

The effects of such forces have not been pretty. According to Ipsos, global opinions on American influence have dipped deep in the red, and the trend shows no sign of stopping. Ipsos found that global support for American influence had declined by 13% from October 2024 to April 2025.

With such weak public diplomacy, America will struggle to play a positive, active global role. Allies are sure to distrust the US, enemies are confident in the security of their own position, and the nonaligned world — where the global population and economy are starting to center — will turn against America.

The new administration has largely sidelined soft power, betting instead on stiff tariffs and transactional diplomacy to deliver hard cash. Yet soft power has a pivotal role to play. America would do well to reactivate this useful, low-cost resource.