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education as a source and tool of soft power in international relations

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Abstract

As the term ‘soft power’ in international relations (IR) has been coined by Joseph Nye a quarter of a century ago it has gained a great response and initiated numerous debates. A high quality education sector is one of the important factors that contributes to a country’s soft power. Despite that, as shown in the article, education has not been adequately covered in the existing IR literature. The article addresses this lacuna by offering an attempt to conceptualise and operationalise the educational aspect of soft power. First, with cases from the People’s Republic of China and Finland, it provides various examples of growing internationalisation of education, and analyses possible soft power gains from education. Second, the article provides a theoretical conceptualization of educational soft power, and presents three mechanisms that it can work through: as a carrier of genuine values, as a resource that countries possess, and as a tool in achieving certain goals. All three mechanisms also show how increasing internationalisation brings more direct connections between education, international relations, and foreign policy.

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Notes

  1. INUS condition results from the set-theoretic conception of necessary and sufficient causes. Multiple causal factors combine together to produce particular outcomes. The individual causal factors are neither necessary nor sufficient; rather, they are part of an overall combination that is sufficient for the outcome. An INUS cause is by itself neither necessary nor sufficient. Instead, it is one cause in a larger combination that is sufficient (but not necessary) for the outcome. The INUS acronym comes from the philosopher Mackie, who defined it as follows: ‘An insufficient but necessary part of a condition which is itself unnecessary but sufficient for the result’ (Mackie, 1965: 246; see also Mackie, 1980).

  2. The Elcano Global Presence Index results were omitted because they are too comprehensive to place them, even in brief version, in this article. For results, see the source report (page 77 and following). Measuring National Power did not include any ranking.

  3. European Union Programme for Education, Training, Youth, and Sport for 2014–2020.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Jacek Czaputowicz, Phil Cerny, Rafał Tenerowicz, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on this article. Research was conducted within the project ‘Education as a new source of power in international relations’, financed within Sonata 1 by the Polish National Science Centre, grant UMO-2011/01/D/HS5/02206.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw, Żurawia 3, Warsaw, 00-503, Poland

    anna wojciuk

  2. Faculty of Journalism and Political Studies, University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 3 00-927 Warsaw, Poland

    maciej michałek

  3. The Polish Institute of International Affairs, Warecka 1a, 00-950 Warsaw, Poland

    marta stormowska

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  1. anna wojciuk
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  2. maciej michałek
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Correspondence to anna wojciuk.

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wojciuk, a., michałek, m. & stormowska, m. education as a source and tool of soft power in international relations. Eur Polit Sci 14, 298–317 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/eps.2015.25

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