International Higher Education as Foreign Policy: Comparing the Strategies of the EU, China, and Russia Towards Central Asia

• Authors: Kerry Anne Longhurst , Agnieszka Nitza-Makowska , Katarzyna Skiert-Andrzejuk

Abstracts

EN

The article sheds light on the nexus between higher education and foreign policy. International higher education has become an increasingly prominent element of some states’ policies towards other countries as a flank to traditional foreign policy. It has occurred in Central Asia, where the European Union, China and Russia are all supporting teaching, research and capacity-building activities in the tertiary sectors of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Although they employ similar tools and instruments, the assumptions and visions underpinning their respective strategies diverge. Russia’s strategy is shaped by historically informed identity factors and the impulse to entrench predominance in the post-Soviet space, whilst China uses its support for higher education as a soft infrastructure for its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Meanwhile, the EU has integrated higher education into its strategy for the region, which aims at drawing Central Asia closer to its orbit through democratisation and the rule of law.

Keywords

EN

Central Asia; higher education; Russia; China; European Union; soft power

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek
• Journal: Polish Political Science Yearbook
• Year: 2022
• Issue: 4(51)
• Pages: 111-123

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Kerry Anne Longhurst

• Collegium Civitas (Poland)

• https://orcid.org/0000000247102640

author

Agnieszka Nitza-Makowska

• Collegium Civitas (Poland)

• https://orcid.org/000000021677986X

author

Katarzyna Skiert-Andrzejuk

• Collegium Civitas (Poland)

• https://orcid.org/0000000344515092

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Identifiers

DOI

10.15804/ppsy202228

Biblioteka Nauki

2195048