This work explores how a country’s political status may impact its soft power policies, such as internationalization of higher education, through an examination of the Turkish case. Based on a survey of and subsequent interviews with actual implementers of policy, university international office heads and staff, the study draws on the theory of “status inconsistency” to contrast the country’s willingness to internationalize, its attributed status as a global magnet for internationalization, and its actual capacity to meet its internationalization goals. It finds that the politicized, top-down policies designed by a status-seeking nation may lead to disconnects in practice that in turn can cause various problems, including misguided “vertical” loyalties; failure to design creative, needs-based institutional visions; and a lack of genuine feedback and evaluation mechanisms, all of which may inadvertently put at risk the very status that was seeking to be improved. Recommendations are made for greater sharing of ideas among the implementers and for more diversity in interpretations of how to achieve internationalization at the institutional level.

这项工作通过对土耳其的案例研究，探讨了一个国家的政治地位如何影响其软实力政策，例如高等教育的国际化。根据对政策的实际实施者，大学国际办公室负责人和员工的调查和随后的采访，该研究借鉴了“状态不一致”的理论，以对比该国的国际化意愿，作为国际化的全球吸引力的固有地位，以及实现其国际化目标的实际能力。它发现，一个寻求地位的国家所设计的政治化，自上而下的政策可能导致实践中的脱节，进而导致各种问题，包括误导的“垂直”忠诚度；无法设计创新的，基于需求的机构愿景；缺乏真正的反馈和评估机制，所有这些都会无意中使正在寻求改善的状况处于危险之中。提出了建议，以便在实施者之间更好地共享思想，并在如何实现制度化国际化的解释上具有更多的多样性。