Thirty-First International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Higher education can be a powerful form of ‘soft power’ for a country where students receive world-class education and engage with the local culture by creating networks of like-minded people and contributing billions of dollars to the growing economy. Soft power initiatives are viewed as an important segment of a nation’s ‘public diplomacy’ by promoting a combination of its culture, political values and foreign policy objectives. The power of attractive ideas and the ability to influence what other countries want is subtly connected to ‘intangible power’ sources such as culture, ideology, institutions and education that other countries want to emulate. To sustain the stability, peace and ‘rules based international order,’ maintaining and promoting principles of U.S. ideology, science & technology, and culture in the form of soft power, are crucial to achieving the intended goals in geo-politics. Methodology used in analyzing texts, analytical reports, news commentary, and opinion pieces for my study is textual-narrative analysis which is a subset of media research methods known as interpretive analysis. The theoretical basis of this paper is the concept of ‘soft power.’ Soft power arises from the positive elements and images of a nation’s culture, political ideals and policies. Soft power is also the ability to get what one wants through enticements and attraction rather than through coercion or bribery. First postulated by Joseph Nye, a Harvard scholar, the theory conceptualized a nation’s ability to persuade and influence other nations via soft power as an alternative to hard power.