作为软实力工具的国际高等教育:一个案例分析及启示

International Higher Education as a Tool of Soft Power:A Case Study and Enlightenment

国际高等教育在国家文化软实力建设上起着重要的作用。国际高等教育既包含内在的教育价值,也有着强烈的政治诉求。作为软实力工具的国际高等教育,政治诉求是目的,教育价值是实现这一目的的手段,西方国家设计并实施了一系列通过教育扩展公共外交进而提升国家软实力的国际高等教育项目。以美国的富布莱特项目为例,分析其运行逻辑,从该案例分析中可以发现,该项目的核心价值是维护国家利益和意识形态传播,其基本逻辑是遵循教育交流规律发展公共外交、瞄准关键群体进行文化传输,以此推动国家文化软实力提升。我国在发展文化软实力的进程中,要切实观照国际高等教育的地位和多重功能,结合自身发展实际,融合不同建设主体,致力于国家教育质量和文化软实力水平的提升。具体路径包括:提高站位,重视国际高等教育服务国家利益的工具价值;聚焦重心,强化国际高等教育交流的深度和广度;双向联结,实现文化软实力与公共外交的协同共赢。

International higher education plays an important role in the construction of national soft power.International higher education not only contains intrinsic educational value,but also has strong political appeal.As a tool of soft power,international higher education has political appeal as its goal and educational value as its means to achieve this goal.Western countries have designed and implemented a series of international higher education programs to promote soft power through education expanding public diplomacy.Taking one of the visiting scholar exchange programs as an example to analyze its operating logic.From the analysis of the case,it can be found that the core value of this project is to safeguard national interests and spread ideology,and its basic logic is to follow the law of educational exchange to develop public diplomacy and target key groups to serve cultural transmission,so as to promote the soft power of national culture.In the process of developing cultural soft power,China should consider the status and multiple functions of internationalization of higher education,combine its own development reality,integrate different construction subjects,and work together to improve the quality of national education and cultural soft power level.Specific approaches include:improving the position,attaching importance to the instrumental value of international higher education to serve the national interests,focusing on strengthening the depth and breadth of international exchanges in higher education,and two-way connection to realize the common development of cultural soft power and public diplomacy.