Nations have for years sought to attain crucial foreign policy goals through programs of higher education. This article, after delineating the psychological dynamics underlying the creation of soft power affect, looks at three conspicuous such programs. 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 in the post-World War II period. Analyzing these cases yields some essential insights into how nations attempt to raise their global influence through the medium of higher education.