Rethinking Strategies for Higher Education Policies as a Soft Power Tool to Navigate an Age of Uncertainty: The Case of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

With geoeconomics on the rise, the rethinking of the global cyber order, and the dynamics of the geopolitical landscape evolving at an unprecedented rate, this paper employs secondary research to examine the ongoing transformation of Saudi Arabian higher education (HE) policies, and the concurrent reframing of Saudi cultural diplomacy as a soft power tool, in three areas: new developments of scholarship programs, the expansion of strategic educational partnerships with foreign countries, and plans to open foreign university campuses on Saudi soil. The author looks at how present and future Sino-Saudi educational exchanges might implement a threefold use of soft power (cultural diplomacy, knowledge diplomacy, academic diplomacy) to navigate these times of uncertainty.