1. More Than a Touristic Visit
Scholar Exchanges as a Communication Method in Public Diplomacy
H.Efe SEVIN
Emerson College
IABD 21st Annual Conference
St. Louis, Missouri

2.  Rationale
 What is Public Diplomacy?
 Foreign Fulbright Program
 Other Cases
 Conclusions
Introduction

3. Rationale: Why Pay a Student?

4. • Necessity and Vitality
• Traditional vs. Public Diplomacy
• Definition
• Scholar exchanges
What is Public Diplomacy?

5. The attempts of gov’ts to challenge the prejudices and
stereotypes about their own values and attitudes in
other countries, and in doing so to provide more
accurate images of their own societies to the rest of
the world.
What is Public Diplomacy?

6.  Impressionistic Study
 59 respondents
 Online survey
 6 multiple choice questions
 2 open-ended optional (83% response rate)
Short Survey

7.  Little history
Alumni
 285,000 alumni from 155 countries
 39 Nobel Prize Winners
 Secretary General of the United Nations
(Boutros Boutros-Ghali)
 Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(Javier Solana)
Foreign Fulbright Program

8. Survey: Why USA?

9. Fulbright's Impact on Decision
No
17%
Yes
83%
Survey: Why USA?

10. Survey: American Image

11.  Open ended questions:
◦ Fact rich
◦ “Change”
 Average : 4.87
 2 or below: 25.4% (15) BUT 8 or above: 33.8% (20)
 Change after US Experience: 66 % (39) - 8 or above
 Academic Methods: 59.5 % (35)
 Daily life habits: 35.6% (21)
Survey: Effects of American Experience

12.  The Fulbright program gives the US institutions a
comparative advantage in recruiting qualified foreign
scholars.
 Regardless of their prior views of the US, the scholars
become integrated into the society and try to understand the
values and dynamics.
 Scholars’ views of the US do not necessarily change during
their stay in the US, however, their experience in US changes
their lives in social and cultural terms.
 The scholars are willing to take what they have been
practicing in the US back to their home countries.
Survey Conclusions

13.  Monbukagakusho
 Chevening
 Jean Monnet
Other Cases

14.  Soft Power – Public Opinion
 Scholar exchanges
◦ Influential People
◦ Personal Experiences
◦ Social Responsibility
 Future of Scholar Exchanges
Conclusions

15. “I'm sure that President Johnson would never have pursued the
war in Vietnam if he'd ever had a Fulbright to Japan, or say
Bangkok, or had any feeling for what these people are like and
why they acted the way they did. He was completely ignorant.”
Senator J. William Fulbright
June 26th , 1986
Conclusions

16. Questions? / Comments?
H.Efe SEVIN
efe@efesevin.com
http://www.efesevin.com/
http://efesevin.wordpress.com/
Thank you for your attention!