Trend · rank 234 of 250

Soft power & cultural influence

States are investing more in attraction through media, culture, education and brands, making national influence and market access depend more on sustained credibility as the use of coercion becomes costlier.

Information & InfluenceDiplomacy & influenceinformationgeoeconomicspolitics

Second pass: Carried forward from the first pass unchanged. Held by all three panel models.

Sensitivity and network position

Rank
234of 250
Sensitivity
0.8rank 247
Breadth
0of 20 scenarios High or above
PageRank
16.5rank 219
Eigenvector
7.0
Betweenness
8.1
Links
7trends at Moderate similarity or above
Composite
7.9

Attention over three years

How much this trend is read about on Wikipedia and searched for on Google, week by week, set against the typical trend in the list so that what moves every trend at once is taken out. 100 is this trend's own three-year average. The score measures public attention, which is not the same as the strength of the force: a trend can deepen unnoticed, and a news event can lift attention for a fortnight.

Share of attention
0.24%rank 113 of 250 · a year earlier 0.24%
Now
106
Over a year
+24%Rising
Over three years
+14%
Peak
20212 Apr 2026
Sources
Bothagreement -0.02
Coverage
20languages · 58 nations

Trailing 4-week average. 100 is this trend’s three-year average.

By language

Wikipedia reading in each language edition where the trend’s pages are read enough to measure (20 of 28). Share is of all the readers counted.

LanguageShareNowOver a yearThree years
English56%85−8%
Russian6%95−3%
Japanese5%98−2%
Chinese5%84−9%
French5%84−10%
Thai4%53−19%
Spanish4%113+4%
German3%100−7%
Persian2%68−22%
Italian2%87−16%
Arabic1%980%
Portuguese1%82−28%
Vietnamese1%99+23%
Korean1%113+6%
Polish1%105+6%
Turkish1%76−24%
Indonesian1%119−3%
Ukrainian0%84−2%
Hebrew0%126−1%
Swedish0%86−9%

By country

Google search interest over the three years, as a share of each country’s searching. 100 is the nation where interest is highest. The search terms are English, which favours countries that search in English.

The 12 highest of 58 nations with a reading. All countries (CSV).

By region and G20 member

Attention to this trend inside each place, from Google searches made in its countries and Wikipedia reading in the languages mostly read there, averaged where both exist. Each line compares the trend with its own past in that place; the lines do not compare places.

Regions

PlaceRead fromNow90 days1 year3 yearsThree years
North AmericaGoogle in 2 countries + Wikipedia in English93−49%+11%+3%
EuropeGoogle in 6 countries + Wikipedia in German, French, Italian, Polish, Swedish127+12%+53%+48%
Indo-PacificGoogle in 7 countries + Wikipedia in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai84−10%−19%−35%
South AsiaGoogle in 2 countries84−21%−1%−21%
Gulf and Middle EastGoogle in 1 country + Wikipedia in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew85−26%+17%−11%
Latin America and CaribbeanGoogle in 2 countries + Wikipedia in Spanish, Portuguese112−20%+9%+36%
Russia and EurasiaWikipedia in Russian, Ukrainian93−9%−3%−5%

G20 members

PlaceRead fromNow90 days1 year3 yearsThree years
AustraliaGoogle106−8%+2%+28%
BrazilGoogle + Wikipedia in Portuguese88−29%−17%−5%
CanadaGoogle110−15%+22%+13%
FranceGoogle + Wikipedia in French75−25%−11%−30%
GermanyGoogle + Wikipedia in German273+162%+239%+277%
IndiaGoogle94−7%+9%−12%
IndonesiaGoogle + Wikipedia in Indonesian102+8%−26%+34%
ItalyGoogle + Wikipedia in Italian96−14%+1%+39%
JapanGoogle + Wikipedia in Japanese89−17%−7%−11%
South KoreaGoogle + Wikipedia in Korean98−4%−15%+7%
MexicoGoogle161−19%+82%+174%
RussiaWikipedia in Russian95−3%−3%−6%
TürkiyeGoogle + Wikipedia in Turkish80−26%+8%−11%
United KingdomGoogle93+1%+1%−4%
United StatesGoogle + Wikipedia in English91−55%+13%+5%

Share of attention by region

GINC Share of Attention: this trend's share of all the public attention the trends in the list draw, worldwide and in each region, week by week (a 4-week average). Each place is read from the Wikipedia languages mostly read there and Google searching in its countries; where a place's language is shared with others, as English is, Google stands alone.

PlaceShare, last 13 weeksRank thereA year earlierRead from
World0.24%113 of 2500.24%Wikipedia reading in all 28 languages, and Google searching worldwide
Asia Pacific0.26%109 of 2500.26%Wikipedia reading in the region's own languages, not English; Google searching in 15 countries, not China
Europe0.12%175 of 2500.16%German, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch and Swedish reading; Google searching in 10 countries, the UK among them
Africa0.04%185 of 2500.06%Google searching in 7 countries; Afrikaans and Swahili reading reaches too few trends to count
South America0.22%118 of 2500.21%Spanish and Portuguese reading, Spanish also read in Spain; Google searching in 5 countries
North America0.04%200 of 2490.03%Google searching in the United States, Canada and Mexico; English reading cannot be split by country
Oceania0.05%173 of 2490.06%Google searching in Australia and New Zealand; English reading cannot be split by country
United States0.04%192 of 2490.04%Google searching; English reading cannot be split by country
United Kingdom0.03%182 of 2490.04%Google searching; English reading cannot be split by country
India0.03%187 of 2490.01%Google searching; Hindi, Bengali and Tamil reading reaches too few trends to count, and English cannot be split by country
China···Wikipedia and Google are blocked in China; no open source counts reading there
Russia0.32%91 of 2030.36%Russian reading, which is also done across the former Soviet states; Google's figures for Russia cannot be bought
Japan0.17%146 of 2500.17%Japanese reading and Google searching
Germany0.12%179 of 2500.14%German reading and Google searching
France0.21%106 of 2500.28%French reading, also done in Africa and Canada, and Google searching
Italy0.15%131 of 2500.29%Italian reading and Google searching
South Korea0.24%106 of 2500.32%Korean reading and Google searching
Indonesia0.03%185 of 2500.04%Google searching; Indonesian reading reaches too few trends to count
Brazil0.27%96 of 2500.29%Portuguese reading and Google searching
Türkiye0.00%154 of 2500.00%Google searching; Turkish reading reaches too few trends to count

Relation to each scenario

A trend relates to a scenario when it changes how likely the scenario is, how hard it lands, or is itself sharply changed by it. Each score is the median of three scores given separately by the members of the model panel.

RelationScenarioFamily
1 · Very lowA verified Middle East settlement restores access S14 ↗Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedCritical trade divides into rival blocs S01Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA global funding seizure reaches sovereign balance sheets S02Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA regional war closes a globally important sea route S03Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedHybrid coercion ends in an infrastructure blackout S04Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedA disputed transfer of power breaks effective government S05Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedTwo breadbasket failures trigger a food availability crisis S06Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedA major disaster disables the national economic core S07Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedAn AI deployment step causes abrupt labour displacement S08Technology and infrastructure
0 · Not relatedA cryptographic breakthrough invalidates digital trust S09Technology and infrastructure
0 · Not relatedA novel respiratory pathogen exceeds health surge capacity S10Health
0 · Not relatedA creditor agreement releases fiscal capacity S11 ↗Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA cross-regional market access compact redirects investment S12 ↗Economic and trade
0 · Not relatedA great-power agreement lowers economic security barriers S13 ↗Geopolitical and security
0 · Not relatedCheap firm clean power becomes available at scale S15 ↗Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedA validated farming package raises water-efficient output S16 ↗Energy, climate and resources
0 · Not relatedAI-directed research produces a reproducible discovery step S17 ↗Technology and infrastructure
0 · Not relatedA public service platform reaches inclusive operation S18 ↗Technology and infrastructure
0 · Not relatedAffordable preventive treatments reduce chronic illness S19 ↗Health
0 · Not relatedA live outbreak proves rapid distributed pandemic defence S20 ↗Health

Similarity = 0.3 × shared tags (Jaccard) + 0.3 × likeness of scenario profiles (cosine) + 0.3 × likeness of names and descriptions (TF-IDF cosine) + 0.1 if in the same capability domain, cut into seven levels at 0.12, 0.22, 0.33, 0.45, 0.58, 0.72. Shown at Moderate and above.

SimilarityTrendThemeRank
4 · HighMiddle-power diplomatic leverageDiplomacy & influence36
3 · ModerateDiplomatic capacity under strainDiplomacy & influence16
3 · ModerateDevelopment finance as influenceDiplomacy & influence63
3 · ModerateCredibility of external commitmentsDiplomacy & influence65
3 · ModerateWeakening multilateral institutionsDiplomacy & influence77
3 · ModerateDiaspora politics & transnational repressionInformation & trust176
3 · ModerateTerrorism & violent extremismConflict & security240