In the 21st century, many countries, including the superpowers, have expanded their interests abroad in diplomacy and dominance by education. In recent years, the importance of education and intellectual exchange in the development of international relations was defined by the term "soft power." Instead of using aggression, soft power relies on the strength of ideas and culture to influence peoples’ interaction and attitude. Higher education is an ideal soft power instrument that can achieve much more than conventional diplomacy approaches (Peterson, 2014). These days, graduates, scholars and analysts are considered to be major players in diplomacy. Educational diplomacy is an important instrument for conducting foreign affairs around the world and has been considered an important and successful tool in public diplomacy practices. Public diplomacy, known as the soft power tool, has arisen as a modern phenomenon in which countries broaden their national interests and seek to mold the attitudes of others and control their behavior. Education exchanges and scholarships have been significant contributors to the strategies of soft power and are an integral aspect of global diplomacy that has yielded many benefits. Through education diplomacy, nations expect the advancement of the political goals and desires of the nation and, ultimately, lead to economic growth and investment of the region. Education diplomacy is an effective tool for mutually favourable and reciprocal ties between nations. Providing educational opportunities to international students is seen by many countries as an important method for achieving soft power objectives. Not only large powers, but small countries also believe in the use of education as a diplomatic instrument to help their governments achieve their national interests and strengthen their identity and trust towards other countries (Vaxevanidou, 2018). Countries, whether they are economically and militarily powerful or not, use education diplomacy in order to ensure development in areas of the socio-economic sector of the country (Waithaka & Maluki 2016). In Asia, China is one of the most successful countries to achieve much from educational diplomacy and portraying a positive image of the country in addition to promoting its culture and history. Chinese students have become a recognizable group all over the world who seek educational opportunities in the world carrying the tales of China with them that eventually reaches the outer world. USA, UK, Europe and other countries have been in the game for a long time, but now the lead is taken by China by providing thousands of scholarships to students all over the world. The increase in the Foreign Educational Exchange is not surprising because it naturally appears to be a constructive approach. Scholars have also been researching about this approach from different aspects, and their research reveals significant importance of education in diplomacy.

The main objective of the current paper is to evaluate the previous research about educational diplomacy with a goal to understand the importance and need for educational diplomacy for different countries. For analysis, published literature in addition to other secondary sources has been studied and concluded in this study to highlight the importance of education in diplomacy. For instance, the focus is given to Chinese students who have been playing a major role in promoting Chinese culture and the national image of China all over the world.

The first section of this paper introduces the topic under discussion followed by the literature review. The second part consists of the major findings from the latest research which are mentioned along with the authors’ names and journal/sources in a table form for better understanding. In the following section, the discussion over education, diplomacy and soft power are presented. In the fourth section, a conclusion with policy recommendation is given while suggestions for future research are also mentioned in the final part of this paper.

Research Design

A conceptual framework is developed for the study of educational exchanges in light of the published work. The research is descriptive in nature; articles, books, websites and other secondary sources which are credible have been thoroughly studied, and their main findings have been added in the table format along with the authors and journal/source. Secondary sources that highlight the importance of educational exchanges have been studied systematically, and their references are given in the bibliography section.

Sources of Data

Secondary sources such as research articles, review articles, conference papers, working papers, books, government and non-government official websites in addition to dissertations related to educational exchanges and its role in diplomacy have been extensively studied. Most of the data is obtained from the recently published materials which have advanced and up to date information and concepts related to the topic. Review of the published work offers the opportunity to reflect and synthesize the existing work that eventually provides bases for the advancement of new knowledge. Literature reviews significantly contribute to the development of the field, and new theories and findings emerge (Liu et al., 2014).

Search Strategy

Renowned and credible sources of publications have been extensively used for the search of related data such as the Google, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Springer and other major search engines and publishers to make sure that the articles or other secondary published sources are credible. Publications published in 2020 were prioritized in addition to 2019 and 2018. The data collection and analysis for this study are conducted in July 2020, so published sources mainly come before this timeframe.

Data Analysis

Data, related to educational exchanges and its role in diplomacy, are evaluated from different perspectives. Literature about educational exchanges in close connection with public diplomacy, soft power, foreign policy has been extensively searched, evaluated and concluded in this paper.

Countries broaden their national interests by education in the art of diplomacy and dominance. In the long history of colonialism, it has played a central role to control local citizens. Education served an important role in the promotion of national power during the postcolonial period (Peterson, 2014). As Lima (2007) concluded three key roles which are usually related to educational exchanges: (1) developing mutual understanding; (2) building the host country's favourable image; and (3) promoting the foreign policy of the host country. In the modern-day, countries, whether small or powerful practice diplomacy in various forms depending upon the opportunity, availability of resources and strength of the country. In an integrated global society, higher education creates critical soft power that is able to manoeuvre a modern realm (Li, 2018).

The fostering of educational cooperation in public diplomacy is a generally recognized concept. Many countries use educational exchanges to allow the world to establish a common understanding and cooperation. China has become the destination of students who want to study Mandarin due to its rapid economic growth (Wang, 2020). Scholarships can and must impact not only global policy towards being more diversified (and not only politically and economically driven) but also form future studies, institutional projects, curricula and pedagogical projects with other international development objectives. No doubt, there's nothing necessarily negative regarding political and economic factors influencing the growth of international education, but they are inadequate in itself, and cannot help solve certain criteria or accomplish certain goals, especially the objectives of global social mobility (Gaulee, 2020; Choudhry & Javed, 2020). US's higher education, research and innovation have brought potential enduring impacts on the foreign audience. For instance, the Fulbright Program is America's best-known public diplomacy program that has gained much popularity and acceptance worldwide. Such projects tend to strengthen soft power; a core part of the current generation of policies and programs aimed at recruiting young international students in the education field (Aras & Mohammed 2019). In this way, the internationalization of higher education encourages building soft power, as a country can draw on a reputation and improve its capacity to engage and affect regional and global impacts by cultivating positive experiences of student mobility and cultural, economic and social ties (Byrne & Hall, 2014). "Educational exchange will turn nations into individuals, leading to the humanization of foreign relations like no other means of communication” (Metzgar, 2015). The exchange might not be a highly efficient tool, but it is the most effective and greatly preferred way to build and maintain interactions (Zaharna, 2010). The evaluation of international education interactions in national universities as public diplomacy includes a long-term view of the possible consequences of attempts to globalize institutions of higher education (Metzgar, 2015). The flow of international students has consequences for universities where students are enrolled beyond the direct monetary or reputational significance. It was found that, for example, Chinese students who had studied in Japan had a better view of Japan in comparison to other countries (Han & Zweig, 2010). Same as the case with other similar examples, if a student studies in one country, there are probable chances that he/she will carry a positive image of that country. Thus, educational exchanges are highly important and play a vital role on different occasions and make the job easier for diplomats of foreign affairs.

Following are some of the important and well-known publications regarding the topic under discussion.

Today, countries concentrate on connections between individuals through a number of mechanisms such as cultural and educational projects, scholarships opportunities and exchanges programs (Bryn, 2016; Gilani et al., 2020). There are several approaches to public diplomacy as a mean of soft power. These include international broadcasting, cultural diplomacy and international exchanges of educational opportunities. In modern times, the foreign exchange of education means the non-reciprocal involvement of people from distinct countries in the host Country's education programs (Aras & Mohammed, 2019). Participants, governments and hosting organizations, in addition to the role of facilitators in the development of soft power, benefit from these interactions for Chinese-based international higher education programs (Metzgar, 2016). Schools and universities are important instruments of public diplomacy that contribute to the study process and cultural promotion. Universities are also important in promoting cultural diplomacy and adequately communicating messages of public diplomacy. In addition, universities host international conferences, workshops and seminars to facilitate the correspondence processes (Özkan, 2015; Khan et al., 2020). Other examples include the Full-Bright program of USA, Chevening and Commonwealth of UK, and China Scholarship Council of China in addition to so many other programs of different countries. Education is one of the main instruments of public diplomacy; that is why it is being practised by many countries around the globe.

Through his seminal thesis, Joseph Nye introduced the word 'soft power' to academic debate bound

to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, and in his later book, he further established the concept, Soft Power (Aras & Mohammed, 2019).

In recent years, the importance of education and intellectual exchange in establishing international relations has been defined by the term 'soft power,' which relies, instead of employing coercion, on the strength of ideas and culture to influence others' friendship and disposition. Higher education is an acceptable soft power platform (Peterson, 2014). Today, there is rising numbers of countries worldwide relying on higher education grants as a way to promote national interest on the global stage (Aras & Mohammed, 2019). According to Castiello-Gutiérrez (2019), higher education is an instrument for rising political soft power and special interests. Countries such as the USA, UK and Australia have established educational opportunities as an important soft power tool. The students on bonds work on senior roles, as they return to their home countries, where they apply the skills they have gained in the foreign country (Nazar et al., 2019). Thus, the provision of higher education to international students plays one of the most significant roles in achieving soft power, and major players in global politics use it to achieve national interests. For instance, China can be seen as a successful country to get benefit from educational diplomacy providing thousands of scholarships to African and other nationals which has eventually facilitated China’s policies across the globe.

Educational Exchanges and Foreign Policy

State-supported student exchange programs are an integral aspect of Modern education and other foreign connections. Most studies put state-funded exchanges in the sense of public diplomacy and discuss their position in current international relations and their impact; as well as policy and correspondence from a diplomatic point of view for international viewers (Åkerlund, 2014). Within the perspective of public diplomacy, an international educational exchange is still attributable to a third political objective which favours the foreign policy of a state. In fact, higher educational exchanges can facilitate a country to progress its foreign policy, understood as choices, decisions, core values or ambitions pursued overseas, are hard to explain or demonstrate (Lima, 2007). It is clear that the educational exchanges positively impact foreign policy in addition to portraying a positive image of the country. The local culture is appreciated and promoted in foreign countries. It also helps the researchers and scholars that shed light on the importance of local culture to be assessed while devising foreign policies, and foreign policies can be more successful when the local culture of the targeted countries are considered while devising foreign policies.

The notion of employing international students to connect foreign peoples' hearts and minds for several reasons is significant and fascinating. Firstly, it demonstrates clearly that the Chinese government is increasingly interested in using non-governmental elements in its public diplomacy and in presenting an adequate understanding of China to eradicate probable misinterpretations. Secondly, foreign students are also viewed as a social characteristics power outlet (Atkisnon, 2010: McLory, 2014). Finally, as the number of foreign Chinese students worldwide increases, they become an increasingly recognizable group and thus the focus of extensive discourses on the future effect of a large community of Chinese students on education, university life and as a source of income for colleges and universities around the world. But detailed research, whether for students or for receiving countries (or both), on the soft power impact of studying abroad, are scarce. Research these days appears to be focused on surveys to assess if a student stays abroad has strengthened their inclination towards their host country, with little debate about whether or not a more optimistic sense of entitlement necessarily transforms into soft power. Therefore, it is in the potential desire of a more comprehensive involvement of international students in sending or receiving countries as soft power tools (Yang, 2015; Khan et al., 2018). China, these days, is one of the successful countries to greatly get the benefit of educational diplomacy. They have been providing a large number of scholarships to the counties where they are doing some great projects such as the One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR). Therefore, China has gained favorable appreciation in these countries in addition to the successful foreign policy acceptance.

This study analyzes the educational exchanges and their impact on diplomacy in a variety of aspects. Several countries around the globe use educational exchanges to enhance their diplomatic relations formally and informally. It is also one of the main approaches to project their positive image to the globe, especially to the target audience. Promoting culture is also one of the domains they can play in through educational scholarships and exchange programs. Among different countries, China is one of the most successful providers of educational scholarships, especially to the countries where they are doing a large number of projects. Full-bright program of the USA and British Council of UK are among other successful examples of scholarships and education providers too, as education is an acceptable soft power with huge impact. With regards to the foreign policy, educational exchanges eventually affect foreign policies of the countries on both sides with positive output. Through educational exchanges, the political objective is attributed to favours the foreign policy of the country that provides these educational opportunities. In fact, higher educational exchanges greatly facilitate a country to progress its foreign policy in the targeted country. Moreover, the Chinese government is increasingly interested in using non-governmental elements in its public diplomacy and in presenting an adequate understanding of China to eradicate probable misinterpretations about its national image in the foreign publics. Chinese students are one of the biggest recognized groups in the world who have been studying all over the world and most of the foreign universities, especially private, are highly depending on their study fee. Thus, China is one of the dominant and successful countries in exercising soft power through educational diplomacy.

Therefore, it is recommended for the policymakers to invest smartly in educational diplomacy as it is highly impactful that can help to attain not only political but economic and technological goals. When more talent comes to the country, more venues of technological innovations open. Not only this but a country’s history, culture, traditions and interests are accepted to a greater extent.

Future research can be done analyzing the potential of China, USA and UK’s educational diplomacy that search for soft power. Researchers can also conduct comparative research on China and USA as they are the dominant players in the world’s politics; both have been investing a huge amount of money in educational scholarships and connecting with the world’s leading universities and researchers. Chinese universities are rising to hold top ranks in the university rankings worldwide while the American universities and research institutes have been holding the top-ranking positions already. The competition between the two giants is tougher than before, and there is much that researchers can explore. The conflict over patents and technology is another perspective that can be researched from the educational perspective exploring the innovative technologies being introduced and implemented by the two countries.