Filling the Void: How Strategic Information Shapes Europeans’ Willingness to Offset Foreign Aid Cuts

To what extent are German and Austrian citizens responsive to strategic interest framing, especially in the context of recent aid withdrawals by the United States and other donors? In this study, we examine whether being reminded of the strategic importance of foreign aid for foreign policy affects European donor publics’ support for foreign aid and their willingness to compensate for recent aid cuts by other foreign donors. We leverage new data from survey experiments fielded in Germany and Austria in July 2025 with 4,220 participants to test how receptive donor publics are to information about the strategic foreign policy value of aid, varying both the source of the aid cut – the United States or the United Kingdom – and who is expected to benefit – either Austria/Germany or China. We find that donor publics are responsive to information about the strategic benefits of aid and about donor competition. There are, however, only minimal differences between our different treatments. Across the two countries, respondents do not react more strongly to cuts by the US or the idea that China may benefit from the cuts.