Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities

A theoretical explanation of “soft power of higher education” in international relations theories; potential and functions

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Author

H. Jabbarinasir

Assistant Professor of International Relations, Department of Cultural Studies, Institute for Cultural Social and Civilization Studies. Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22035/isih.2024.5213.4972
Abstract
With the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the understanding of power also gradually changed. Soft power by modifying the limited focus of realist power analysis i.e. possessing specific tangible resources to maintain and increase national power, introduces persuasive power; the ability to shape the desires of others not by force but through persuasion distinguishes between hard and soft power. In terms of effectiveness, it clearly showed the nature of the behavior and the concreteness of the resources. In Joseph Nye's explanation, soft power is an analytical concept that matches and overlaps with realist, liberal, and constructivist views and theories. Higher education can be regarded as an apparatus of soft power, thereby entailing examination of its relationship with other international theories.  The basic question is the position of the soft power of higher education in international theories and how it can be theoretically explained in the theories that have also observed pragmatic behaviors. Here, by explaining higher education as a cultural matter and an apparatus of soft power, we demonstrate its relationship with the theories of realism, liberalism and constructivism. Methodologically, we are conducting an interdisciplinary study, citing library studies and explaining descriptive review. In examining each of these theories, we present narratives, conceptual and theoretical frameworks regarding the role of the soft power of higher education to explain its role in domestic development and national interests in various political, social, cultural, technological and economic fields, maintaining peace and preventing conflict as well as its role in expanding public diplomacy and soft power of higher education.

Keywords

soft power
higher education
Liberalism
Realism
Constructivism
identity
war and peace

Subjects

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