Description
State-sponsored international education has emerged as a key instrument of soft power, yet its curricula, programs, and target audiences remain underexamined. Drawing on comparative cases from France, India, and Turkey, this research shows how transnational educational policies illuminate shifting national identity narratives. It positions Israel as an outlier, due to its prioritization of relations with the global Jewish ethno-religious diaspora over its own transnational citizens.
Using historical texts, government initiatives and official policies, the research demonstrates how privileging Jewish peoplehood over a civic, citizen-based national identity within transnational spaces reflects domestic ideological shifts and the erosion of Israel's civic-republican conception of nationhood. The findings highlight the value of examining international education, not only as a foreign policy tool but as a diagnostic lens for understanding the evolution of national identity narratives.
