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The outstanding quality of education is one of the factors that builds a country's soft power in international relations (IR). We claim that the role of education in the international prestige and standing of a country has been significantly increasing in the recent years, mainly because of major transformations in the global economy and a corresponding shift in values, which have grown in importance in the processes of modernisation. In the most advanced countries this economic transformation, sometimes described as the fifth Kondratiev wave, produced at least a partial shift from the industrial, crude-oil-based model of production to the knowledge-based one (Freeman and Louça, 2001; Perez, 2002). As economic historians show, there were numerous cases in the past when education was an important driver of modernisation and technological advantage (one of several drivers, though), which then translated into rapid development, and fostered global political influences. Spectacular examples were Germany, France, and Japan in the nineteenth century (Landes, 1998).
Education becomes even more important in the context of the transformation to a knowledge economy and makes it a necessary condition to avoid the so-called 'middle income trap'; it is considered to be one of the intensive factors of economic growth and economic competitiveness. Education is also an important yet rarely discussed element of state building (Green, 2013). Not only is quality education an important factor for global economic competitiveness, it also plays a major role in fostering such values as equality of opportunities, empowering disadvantaged societies and individuals. Education is becoming more and more important, especially as knowledge grows in importance in a globalising world. Knowledge itself becomes more transnational, given information and communication technology, scientific advances, and the general spread of awareness of the importance of knowledge across borders. It is magnified by an unprecedented expansion of the middle class and urbanisation. Knowledge is not only growing exponentially, but it spreads globally at a fast pace. Education is necessary to catch up in this global knowledge race. Finally, education that goes beyond the labour market requirements, reflects a shift to post-materialist values (Inglehart and Welzel, 2005). These effects can be sources of a country's attractiveness for other states, therefore building its soft power.
Given the described transformation in various aspects of social life, we claim...