Throughout the history of France-US relations, invoking the memory of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, has typically signaled a pivotal moment. The day after his speech to recognize the State of Palestine at the United Nations – an address that irritated the White House – Emmanuel Macron officially launched a university fellowship bearing the name of the famed "Hero of Two Worlds." The stated goal: to welcome 30 outstanding American master's students to France each year, with tailor-made academic programs. The underlying objective: to expand French soft power − especially as the bond between Washington and Paris is visibly weakening.

"This fellowship is based on trust and youth," Macron said on Tuesday, September 23, from Villa Albertine, the French cultural center in New York. Speaking in English, the French president evoked the two countries' shared history, particularly during major wars, and expressed his hope to see "a new generation of Americans crossing the ocean, not to wage war, but to invent the future of science and culture together but to invent a future together, with this common idea – the legacy of the Marquis de Lafayette, which is a legacy of [the] Enlightenment, and belief (...) in reason, in culture and in education."

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