When we hear the term “soft power,” we often think about governments.
Culture.
Diplomacy.
Media.
International reputation.
Education is usually somewhere in that conversation, but I think we sometimes underestimate just how powerful it can be.
Because education does something that political messaging often cannot.
It stays with people.
A government can change.
A political message can disappear.
A news cycle can move on.
But what someone learns, who they learn from and how that experience changes the way they see the world can stay with them for years.
Education Is More Than Knowledge
We often think of education as transferring information.
But education also shapes perspectives.
It influences how people ask questions.
How they understand other societies.
How comfortable they are with disagreement.
How they interpret evidence.
And sometimes, how they see their own place in the world.
That is why education has implications far beyond the classroom.
The International Classroom
Education is becoming increasingly international.
Students study abroad.
Universities collaborate across borders.
Professionals participate in international programs.
Online learning brings people together who may never otherwise meet.
A learner can spend a few hours in a virtual classroom with people from several countries without leaving home.
They may be learning a technical subject.
But they are also learning about people.
How others communicate.
How they approach problems.
How they disagree.
What they value.
Sometimes, they discover that an assumption they had carried for years was simply wrong.
That is education doing something much bigger than transferring knowledge.
Influence Does Not Have to Mean Persuasion
This distinction matters.
Soft power is sometimes discussed as though influence means convincing someone to agree with you.
I don’t think it has to.
Influence can come from creating an experience that makes someone curious.
A scholarship can create a lifelong relationship.
An academic exchange can change how someone understands another country.
A professional program can create relationships that continue long after the program ends.
None of this requires telling someone:
“You should think like us.”
The influence can happen through the experience itself.
Learning With People, Not Only About Them
I think this is where intercultural learning becomes especially powerful.
There is a difference between learning about another culture and learning with people from that culture.
When people work together on a real problem, they learn things that no textbook can fully explain.
They discover different approaches to communication.
They learn how other people make decisions.
They challenge their own assumptions.
And sometimes they realize that what they thought was “normal” was simply what they were used to.
That is a very different kind of learning.
Education and Professional Capability
This conversation also extends into workforce development.
Today’s professionals increasingly operate across borders.
They work with international colleagues, customers, institutions and partners.
They need technical knowledge, but they also need communication skills, cultural intelligence and the ability to collaborate across differences.
That means professional education can contribute to a country’s international influence too.
Developing professionals who can represent their organizations confidently across cultures is not only about employability.
It is also about building relationships.
The Responsibility That Comes With Influence
But there is a line we should be careful not to cross.
Education should not become propaganda.
If education simply tells people what to believe, we lose much of its value.
The strongest educational environments allow people to question.
They allow disagreement.
They expose learners to perspectives that challenge their own.
They teach people how to think rather than simply what to think.
That, to me, is where education becomes genuinely powerful.
The Long Game
Soft power rarely produces immediate results.
Education works differently.
A student returns home.
A researcher builds a collaboration.
A professional develops an international network.
A teacher passes an idea to another generation.
A relationship continues years after the original educational experience.
The impact may not always be visible immediately.
But it can be deep.
And perhaps the most powerful form of educational influence is not:
“Come and learn why we are right.”
It is:
“Come and learn with us.”
That creates space for exchange.
It allows both sides to influence one another.
And it recognizes something I believe is increasingly important in our interconnected world:
No country, institution or organization has a monopoly on knowledge.
We all have something to teach.
And we all have something to learn.
