This suggested paper relates to the EU's motivation to restructure its image in the international arena with the use of nontraditional tools in nontraditional fields in the international arena. The case study to relate this issue is the European Process of harmonization of higher education, the Bologna Process, with the EU's effort to disseminate it globally. The paper explains the motivation and implication of this dissemination through the lens of the normative power theory as part of the EU's foreign policy and its aspirations in the field of international relations.
In 2012, during one of the worst months of the Eurozone crisis, the Tempus program budget was almost doubled. This paper seeks to understand the reason for the exceptional investment in the Tempus program in times of crisis. Based on quantitative and qualitative questionnaire the paper describes the influence of the Tempus project on its participants and the higher education systems outside Europe. The paper examines the manner in which the EU uses the global dimension of the Bologna Process to enrich and strengthen its non-military modes of power, such as normative power, and support the EU construction of the European higher education systems as a source of growth.
It shows how higher education programs helps the EU strengthen its power in the international arena, by using the Normative Power Europe theory. Using various methodologies, it shows how the theory comes to practice in the field of higher education outside Europe, and open a discussion regarding the unique characteristics of the field of higher education in relations to the implementation of the theory. The paper argues that the Bologna Process, as one of the elements of the EU's tool-kit, helps the EU to build its image as an international leading actor in the field of higher education, and beyond.
