European union tertiary education policy : soft power objectives.

Abstract

The European Union is widely recognized as being an organization that is noble, even selfless and altruistic in its aims and by extension its various programs of engagement with the ‘developing’ world. Yet it is the argument of this paper that the EU’s funding of tertiary education in Southeast Asia, namely European Studies programs constitutes a contemporary form of European neocultural penetration. This dose not insinuate that the EU is acting in an imperial fashion, but rather the EU’s engagement with Southeast Asia is based on motives which are less than benign in intent and designed to further EU and EU member state agenda’s in the realm of politics, economics, and trade via soft power influence which is targeted at Asia’s next generation of influential business, academic and government leaders in order to sustain long term goals of influence, power and prestige. The EU is conducting its tertiary education engagement with willful intent to influence a particular segment and demographic of Southeast Asian persons via culture and/or a value based model commiserate with its status achieved after institutionalization of its current form and highly indicative of its civilian character and engagement with the wider world.