Article
Pedagogical Offensives: Soft Power, Higher Education and Foreign Policy
Journal of Political Power
(2022)
Abstract
Nations have for years engaged in cultural promotion through specific organizations. A number of these ventures have manifested themselves as formal initiatives for attaining foreign policy goals through programs of higher education. The attention garnered by China’s Confucius Institutes has raised the awareness of the possibilities of generating soft power for the nations that launch such pedagogical initiatives. This article, after delineating the psychological dynamics underlying the creation of soft power affect, looks at three programs that have been far less auspicious in this soft-power narrative of education, but nonetheless important. They are America’s Fulbright Program, Australia’s Colombo Plan and the Soviet Union’s Patrice Lumumba University. Each of these was designed to promote both broad and specific foreign policy goals for the sponsor nation during the post-war period. Looking at these cases individually and comparatively yields some essential insights into how nations intentionally attempt to raise their global influence through the medium of higher education.
Disciplines
Publication Date
Fall October, 2022
Citation Information
Giulio M Gallarotti. "Pedagogical Offensives: Soft Power, Higher Education and Foreign Policy" Journal of Political Power Vol. 15 Iss. 3 (2022) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/giulio_gallarotti/64/