Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
Among the many means of acquiring influence in contemporary global politics, educational cooperation is a form of interstate engagement that binds countries like no other. While future leaders form long-lasting ties with foreign states as they pursue their education, cooperation in the educational sphere also provides outside powers with an opportunity to influence and shape the views of the public at large in target countries. Anastasia Pogorelskaya, Associate Professor at Tomsk State University, explores educational cooperation between Central Asian states and Western powers, highlighting the growing influence of Western educational institutions in the region. The author is a participant of the Valdai – New Generation project.
Since 2022, there has been a marked intensification of Western policy towards Central Asia, as evidenced by the frequency of official visits, meetings in the C5+1 format, and the announcement of new projects. In reality, however, work with Central Asian elites has been underway for quite some time, particularly through their education. The emphasis on providing education to elites is a revealing example of the “soft power” of education, yielding long-term dividends. Its strategic objective is to cultivate a stratum of loyal graduates who will facilitate the development of multidimensional cooperation with the country in which they studied. As of 2025, two-thirds of current world leaders received their higher education within the Anglo-Saxon educational system. Given the strategic importance of the Central Asian states for Russian foreign policy and security, the preference of Central Asian elites for Western rather than Russian universities weakens Russia’s ties with the countries of the region.
The activity of Western universities coincided with the Central Asian states’ own intentions to diversify the geography of educational cooperation in order to attract foreign investment into their human capital. The heightened interest in establishing branches of foreign universities on their own territory is also driven by concerns over brain drain. The geography of these branch campuses carries the same subtext—for example, the branch of the University of Arizona established at North Kazakhstan University is located in a region traditionally characterised by an outflow of applicants to Russia. In addition, the unfavourable international environment and the limited resources of Russian universities are enabling competitors to balance Russian influence in Central Asian educational cooperation ever more actively.
Several factors indicate that Western countries have set their sights on Central Asian elites. First, Western higher education is expensive, resulting in the automatic selection of the wealthiest applicants—residents of capitals and major cities, and more often than not, individuals from elite social strata.
Second, despite the increasingly active rhetoric surrounding cooperation in recent years, Central Asia is not a geographical priority for most Western partners. Consequently, their willingness to invest in education for the broader population of the region remains limited. The number of scholarships allocated to the region is negligible, yet sufficient to attract the most highly qualified applicants, which again favours affluent urban residents.
Third, Western countries have succeeded in creating a durable perception of the prestige of their higher education systems, aided in no small part by international university rankings compiled by commercial companies and media organisations based in those same countries. A diploma from a prestigious university is regarded by wealthy and influential parents as one of the most important investments in their children’s future. Consequently, Central Asian elites are increasingly sending their children specifically to Western universities.
The Valdai Discussion Club was established in 2004. It is named after Lake Valdai, which is located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the Club’s first meeting took place.
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