Airwaves: Turn the Dial

The US is abandoning its international broadcasters. Europe should step in.

March 17, 2025

“We’ve got this one.” That should be the message from Brussels to Washington, DC, as the Trump administration lays waste to one of the greatest pillars of American soft power. Radio Free Europe started broadcasting in 1950 to the captive nations of the Soviet empire, initially in Czech, followed a year later by Radio Liberty in Russian. Its sister station Voice of America (VOA) dates from 1942.

Reform is overdue. The glory days of the cold war are long gone. Media appetites have changed, along with technology (remember shortwave radio, anyone?) The US Agency for Global Media, the arms-length bipartisan body that supervises the broadcasters, is repeatedly rated as the worst federal agency to work for.

But terminating RFE/RL and VOA’s grant is not reform. Nor is it about saving money. The sums involved are trivial—around $120m for RFE/RL, which, for its 50m weekly audience in 23 countries, works out at around 4 cents per person per week. The decision marks a deliberate, historic retreat from a strategically central cultural and political mission that started in the darkest days of the Cold War.

The contrast is poignant. The first steps in founding RFE came in April 1949, while the Soviets were blockading West Berlin and as the Western allies announced the formation of what was to become the new West Germany. Behind the Iron Curtain, listening to the “voices” was an act of risky defiance. The Communist authorities spent vast sums on jamming the broadcasts. Then the US wore its newly acquired mantle of global hegemon confidently. Now that garment lies crumpled on the ground, and the erstwhile superpower is in shambling retreat. We were told that “America First” does not mean “America Alone.” But to any outside eye, this decision certainly symbolizes “America diminished.”

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Europe should seize the opportunity created by this colossal, historic act of self-harm. Already taboos are vanishing. It no longer sounds odd to talk of European armed forces, using military equipment made solely in Europe with local supply chains, perhaps even eventually including a European nuclear deterrent, all under command of a European military structure reporting to European politicians, advised by a European intelligence agency. (Disclosure: I’m working on a Polish-Belgian plan to create a European Defence Bank)

But all that will take years and cost billions. RFE/RL is a ready-made project: the information-warfare equivalent of a fully commissioned, crewed and equipped aircraft carrier. Its most important office is in Europe, in Prague (cutting the US end of the bureaucracy will save money and probably improve efficiency). As the Czech government commendably argues, the time to act is now, before talented staff drift away into other jobs, buildings and equipment get sold off, and institutional culture decays. All that for the cost of one US-made F-35 fighter, which probably won’t work when we need it.

And why stop there? If Europe is going stand up to Russia, China, and the United States, it needs not just economic clout and military might, but a soft-power arsenal combining development aid and information. Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister, suggests tripling the European Endowment for Democracy’s budget (around $50m) to start filling the gap left by the US retreat. I would go further, adding at least a couple of zeros to that figure, and scoop up talented Russia-watchers and military brainboxes from other casualties of recent days.

If the European decision-makers get a move on, they could easily have everything ready to take over by RFE’s 75^th anniversary. That is July 4^th: a day when celebrations in Europe may otherwise be rather more muted than usual.

Edward Lucas is a Non-resident Senior Fellow and Senior Advisor at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.