導 言

　　正如帝國主義與新帝國主義二者有著相通之處，歷史性地產(chǎn)生進而向全球蔓延的殖民主義與新殖民主義這兩大體系，也表現(xiàn)出一些基本的共性。當然，既然“新殖民主義”和“新帝國主義”都帶有一個形容詞前綴“新”，使其與各自的傳統(tǒng)形式區(qū)別開，那么前后之間還是存在著些許差異的。相同之處在于，無論是“新”是“舊”，它們都是各自特定歷史時期的產(chǎn)物，而且都涉及到一部分地區(qū)、國家和民族對另外一些地區(qū)、國家和民族的操控、統(tǒng)治與剝削。無論是哪一種形式，它們都是硬實力和軟實力在當時特定歷史條件下以動態(tài)變化的規(guī)則相融合而成（如今奧巴馬政府又提出一個新名詞“巧實力”，即硬實力和軟實力的“最優(yōu)”組合），其方式或直接或間接，其水平、結(jié)構(gòu)和具體表現(xiàn)多種多樣。

　　傳統(tǒng)的殖民主義和帝國主義更傾向于直接、有形的介入，通過從遠距離和在東道國當?shù)赝瑫r投放并輸送硬實力，攫取對境外領土的控制權，然后再進行安撫、掌管和持續(xù)控制；至于對軟實力的采用，也有一些，但并不多。而新殖民主義和新帝國主義，通常來說會選擇運用更間接、更“柔性”的經(jīng)濟、政治、法律和文化等力量形式，從異地的遠程基地投放之后，又經(jīng)由一些“依附性的”“被征服的”本土化機構(gòu)和精英們輸送轉(zhuǎn)換；同時，也在保證硬實力威懾（公開的軍事行動和隱蔽的幕后操控）時刻待命，若有必要亮出來的時候決不會手軟。

　　盡管世界范圍的交通、通訊成本日益降低，強國霸權還是更青睞于投射形式更輕柔、距離更遠的軟實力（“天鵝絨手套”），勝過于更為直接化、本土化和公開化的粗暴硬實力（“鐵拳”）。之所以如此，可不僅僅是由于霸權之手伸得過長、維持海外基地和據(jù)點的成本過高，以至于在殖民主義和帝國主義統(tǒng)治中心的內(nèi)外不斷制造出財政危機及其它危機；原因還在于，在比較直接粗暴的硬實力的運用之下，所造成的沖突會更加劍拔弩張、更加昭然若揭，其剝削性的真實本質(zhì)、霸權統(tǒng)治的真正贏家和輸家都一清二楚。鐵腕推行硬實力的舉動，將會不可避免地對尚未參戰(zhàn)人員產(chǎn)生“副作用”——它往往更能激起而不是磨滅人們對侵略者的反抗。這與博得外圍國家“心悅誠服”的戰(zhàn)略要求是不相符合的。

　　以國際教育為排頭兵的“軟實力”被日漸倚重，其中還有一個重要因素，那就是遏制、影響、“教化”和勸服攻勢的形式更為間接、隱蔽、潛在、柔和，而實現(xiàn)此類任務的技術不斷地趨于復雜、難以察覺、效力更強——因為這類攻勢使得那些被剝削者能更加直接甚至是“心甘情愿”地參與到對自身的剝削之中。正如壯烈犧牲的南非自由斗士、“黑人覺醒運動”領導人史蒂夫•比科（Steve Biko）所揭示的那樣：“壓迫者最有效的武器就是被壓迫者的意志。”歌德也曾說過：“最無望的被奴役者莫過于那些誤以為自己擁有自由身之人。”

　　軟實力、硬實力以及應用這兩種力量的核心在于教育，包括國際教育。教育提供了必要的技術手段和專家團隊，用以發(fā)展軟硬實力的相關技術和將之推行于全球的最有效手段。教育設定了一個框架，決定著我們準備利用自身感知力去發(fā)現(xiàn)什么（哪些是值得、哪些是不值得關注的主題），或進而去思考什么。教育樹立了一些范式，而我們正是通過這些范式去運用自己的感知力，決定著我們感官所收集到的信息中哪些要接受、哪些要摒棄，決定著我們樂于去接近、接受或抵觸什么樣的信息源、什么樣的“權威”。教育塑造了一些視角，約束著我們?nèi)绾慰创覀冏陨硪约八幍纳鐣?jīng)濟、政治法律體系，相應地如何看待他人和他們各自所處的體系。教育形成了我們的眼界，影響著我們認為哪些是不可觸犯的神諭，哪些是不能涉足的禁區(qū)。教育鑄就了我們的歷史觀，引導著我們判斷本國歷史或別國歷史中哪些方面是值得關注與反思的。教育打造出我們的科學觀，規(guī)范著我們對于科學、科學方法及其應當如何運作和應用的觀念。教育在向我們灌輸，就我們現(xiàn)有體制的存在和擴張而言，哪些是我們應當奉為圭臬的主流“文化”、價值和信條。教育左右了大眾消費的偏好和品味，我們所選擇（或者說是被引導甚或被誘使）消費的內(nèi)容，既是在反映同時也在塑造著我們的主流價值，包括我們需要生產(chǎn)什么、怎樣生產(chǎn)、為誰生產(chǎn)，生產(chǎn)和資源配置應當如何進行。教育教導我們，對哪些詞匯應當深刻領會并嫻熟運用，對哪些詞匯根本無須理會；教育還規(guī)定著詞匯的內(nèi)涵——包括“教育”這個概念本身的內(nèi)涵。

　　在美國及其他各處的新保守主義和新自由主義看來，第四次世界大戰(zhàn)即全球反恐戰(zhàn)爭已經(jīng)進行了一段時日。隨之而來的則有這樣幾個基本問題：第三次世界大戰(zhàn)又是指什么？它是何時開始的呢？它仍在進行當中嗎？該如何定義“勝利”二字？

　　為數(shù)不少的新保守主義者和新自由主義者，將第三次世界大戰(zhàn)視為不同社會制度和意識形態(tài)之間爭奪“心靈與思想”的全球性戰(zhàn)爭，在他們眼里，這場戰(zhàn)爭大致開始于1980年前后并持續(xù)至今。對他們而言，在資本主義面前，社會主義和共產(chǎn)主義“存在即威脅”——他們委婉地稱之為對“民主”的威脅。新保守主義者也好，新自由主義者也好，都把這場發(fā)生在不同社會制度及不同意識形態(tài)間的全球性戰(zhàn)爭，看作是一場曠日持久的爭奪戰(zhàn)，不到資本主義最終取得對社會主義不可逆轉(zhuǎn)的勝利，不到西方式的政治多元化（他們將之與“民主”相提并論）取得對一黨制治理的勝利，就絕不會終結(jié)。他們清楚地懂得，社會主義建設及其對外防御所必需的人民、機制、生產(chǎn)關系和價值觀的類型，完全不同于全球范圍內(nèi)資本主義擴大再生產(chǎn)所必需的價值觀（極端個人主義、過度消費、自私自利、物質(zhì)至上、急功近利等等）。

　　歷史上的國際教育

　　殖民主義和帝國主義將國際教育作為推行霸權與實施統(tǒng)治的工具由來已久。早在羅馬時代，霸權的推行不僅經(jīng)常導致種族滅絕，而且還遵循了“種族滅絕”一詞的始用者拉斐爾•萊姆金（波蘭籍猶太學者拉斐爾•萊姆金于1944年在其文章《軸心國統(tǒng)治下被占領的歐洲》中，最早創(chuàng)造了“genocide”一詞，即“種族滅絕”）所概括出的兩大階段：第一步，對鎖定為進行種族滅絕和（或）外國統(tǒng)治目標的族群，摧毀其“國家形式”；第二步，在實施種族滅絕和（或）霸權推行中，將殖民或帝國霸權的國家形式強加于其上。

　　即使到了現(xiàn)在，英國仍擁有一批致力于地理學、人類學和外國語言學研究的頂級大學——這是因為，相較于剛剛才悟出這個道理的美國霸權，英國的殖民和帝國強權早已深諳此道：當你組織大量裝備精良的軍隊、憑借堅固的軍事基地來對土著民族實施直接統(tǒng)治和越界占領時，當?shù)厝藷o疑會十分清楚誰是統(tǒng)治者、誰是被統(tǒng)治者。他們還很明白：海外基地將耗費巨大，會在自己的大本營內(nèi)制造財政危機及其它危機；同時，海外基地一旦被潛在的充滿敵視情緒的原住民所包圍，將是不堪一擊的。因此，英國設置了“地區(qū)長官”體系，招募本土精英（大多是具有混合血統(tǒng)并且膚色較淺的本地人）并讓他們到大學中接受培訓，隨后再安排他們對“他們自己”的人民進行統(tǒng)治，或協(xié)助外來強權實施控制；借助于這些精英所構(gòu)成的網(wǎng)絡，只需相對較少但訓練有素的殖民行政管理人員就能有效地實現(xiàn)統(tǒng)治。如同今日之美國一樣，當時的英國不僅鼓吹他們是世界“文明使命”的組成部分，而且把自己的政治、經(jīng)濟、文化、法律與社會體系以及價值觀作為“普世性范本”——如果哪個國家對“文明”（這種“文明”已經(jīng)被殖民和帝國強權定了型）的進步報有任何方面（如水平、形式和速度等）的期待，就必須仿效這個范本。

　　就像今天一樣，傳教士們將身份隱藏在“國際教育人士”等各種外表和名目之下，被派出充當種族滅絕活動的分包商和殖民帝國霸權的急先鋒。他們所采用的典型形式，用美洲土著民族的概括說法就是“3B體系”——圣經(jīng)（Bible）、美元（Buck）和子彈（Bullet）。首先是圣經(jīng)，與之形影相隨或緊隨其后的是商業(yè)利益，同時也少不了軍事表現(xiàn)，以便維護既得利益并進一步介入。同公元4世紀早期在尼西亞大公會議上將基督教樹立為羅馬帝國正統(tǒng)宗教的羅馬皇帝康斯坦丁一樣，英國及其許多傳教士都明白一點：要想最終摧毀現(xiàn)存的原住民機構(gòu)（“國家形式”）并用另一套機構(gòu)取而代之，那么首先應當循序漸進地拉攏、利用既有機構(gòu)，例如借用異教徒的禮拜日和宗教儀式，這遠比直接地公開圍剿這些東西更加奏效。這意味著，若企圖搗毀當?shù)氐?ldquo;國家形式”，就必須先努力了解這種形式和當?shù)孛褡逭Z言，并且（或者）借助于不同的面目和偽裝，雇傭、教導、訓練當?shù)厝巳シ蠲惺隆?br />
　　和英國一樣，美國霸權正在面向未來，尋求權謀的長遠推行和更為間接隱蔽的統(tǒng)治。他們已經(jīng)建起“教育交流”，引入一批從東道國或別處挑選出來的精英和具有精英潛質(zhì)的人，向其灌輸世界觀，傳授實用技能，植入符合霸權利益的信條。這些精英中的許多人受到了刻意扶植，借高等教育等各種背景鍍了“金”，從而不僅可以在一些名義上是當?shù)氐?、本民族的?ldquo;去殖民化”的機構(gòu)中獲取和保持一定的權力地位，而且能夠作為有別于本地人的教育人士、政治家、科學家、傳教士、文化傳播者、情報人員等，以這類身份展開一些服務于境外勢力的活動。

　　現(xiàn)實中的國際教育

　　外國語言學習與交流

　　隨著全球化步伐加快和廣度深度不斷擴大，國際教育的必要性比以往任何時候都更受到重視。最偏遠的民族、地區(qū)和社會形態(tài)，正在越來越快地被卷入和統(tǒng)一到一個與資本主義規(guī)則信條相適應的動態(tài)的全球經(jīng)濟體當中來。在此情勢之下，一方面更多的非英語人群要去學習英語，另一方面許多以英語為母語的人也要去學習其他正在興起的有影響力的語言。各種項目和交流機構(gòu)紛紛設立，一部分的確從事著他們所公開宣稱的業(yè)務，但有一些卻名不副實。這些項目不僅事關學習不同的語言，而且涉及到跨文化的認知、跨國聯(lián)系的建立。

　　并非所有的文化和語言學習交流項目都出自善意。在曾經(jīng)當過“經(jīng)濟殺手”的約翰•珀金斯（他曾受雇于美國國家安全局，協(xié)助該部門誘使窮國和獨裁體制踏入在劫難逃的債務和奴役性償債陷阱之中）的幾本書中，他談到了世界少數(shù)民族語文研究院（SIL International），美國一個極端保守的基督教新教會團體，專事于整理研究少數(shù)民族語言、接近失傳的土著語言，并組織相關培訓。他們與西方情報機構(gòu)簽有培訓協(xié)議，據(jù)說還為一些大型跨國公司例如石油公司提供培訓，以便介入當?shù)氐念I土和文化，通過向當?shù)厝颂峁┦称?、藥品和衣物，以及將當?shù)厝诉w往教會保留地等方式，迫使或拉攏當?shù)厝讼蛲鈬窘怀龅V藏豐富的土地和資源。他們還參與圣經(jīng)的翻譯工作，譯成稀有和近乎失傳的語言。實際上，當一個人學習一種新的語言時，學習過程中的反饋效應會潛移默化地影響此人的思想體系，影響他對各種問題和利益取向的觀念，因此，這時他所能接觸到、學習到的特定的語法、詞源、詞匯，連同那些他無從接觸到的東西，一起塑造著實用語言中的范例、價值觀和水平，塑造著這個學習者的立場觀點，哪怕是在他自己的文化環(huán)境中學習他自己的母語時也會發(fā)揮作用。

　　基金會、研究院和“專家鑒定”

　　諸如美國國家民主捐贈基金會、福特基金會、洛克菲勒基金會之類，目前各地充斥著大量老牌的或新建的全球基金會和研究院，組織國際教育交流，分發(fā)印刷精美的出版物，為貫徹帝國主義利益和意圖擔任前沿陣地（“智庫”）。它們還有能力給物色好的、中意的學者和學生們搭建發(fā)表見解的講壇，推廣他們的學術出版物以提高知名度，給予獎金豐厚的獎項，提供在知名學校和“智庫”的教研職位，由此建立起有益于帝國利益的各種全球工作關系和人脈。近來，這些機構(gòu)正在著眼未來，挖掘和培養(yǎng)一批年輕的學者、官員和潛在精英，這些人現(xiàn)在可以接受招募，未來可以安插到他們能夠升遷到的各自國內(nèi)職位而服務于西方國家利益。由于青年學者往往年齡不大，剛剛拿到學位卻缺少研究經(jīng)歷和著作，因此他們特別容易上鉤并受擺布——這樣他們就能得到資助來創(chuàng)作和出版學術著作，而一旦擁有了這些，青年學者將很快地在本國和境外的學術圈子里步入上升通道。青年人經(jīng)常會陷入無所適從的境地：一方面他們由于履歷平平或缺少名校學位，無法找到工作或研究職位，另一方面他們由于沒能找到合適的工作或研究機會，又不可能擁有一份沉甸甸的履歷。而這些基金會提供了一個“浮士德式的交易”（指浮士德為了追求更多知識而將靈魂獻給魔鬼作為交換），使他們得以立即跳出這樣的陷阱或困境。這些基金會和研究院還能夠影響國內(nèi)外的研究導向、內(nèi)容和應用，并在時事評論和各項事務中樹立一派觀點。

　　來自西方著名教育機構(gòu)的大名鼎鼎的首席“專家”們，正在被引進到外圍地區(qū)，并像其他一切商品一樣得到推銷。經(jīng)常會出現(xiàn)這種情況，當你仔細去審視這些“專家”的作品時，尤其是在社會科學和藝術領域，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)他們的工作真的十分稀松平常，根本不比外圍地區(qū)學者正在做著的工作“先進”到哪兒去。然而，就是存在著一種能夠打造出名牌的權力，就是有一批個人和機構(gòu)擁有這些“品牌”，這使得他們處處受到追捧和邀請，并形成將來可以為霸權利益效力的關系和同盟。一些外圍國家地區(qū)的青年學者久聞“專家”盛名（要么身為教科書或研究著作的作者，要么擁有令人驚羨的頭銜和資格認證），他們尋求“專家”們的資助以照亮個人前程，他們渴望著能移民到西方國家的重鎮(zhèn)去工作，因此，在這些年輕人面前，“專家”們還扮演著“吸引者”“物色者”甚至是“招募者”的角色。

　　如今，超過5萬家各類非政府組織(NGOs)涉足于國際教育和交流。這些組織一般來說只圍繞著某一特定課題，經(jīng)常是以其所關注的特殊事務或領域而命名。部分機構(gòu)除了成為各種西方商業(yè)和情報利益的前哨，它們還通過不同形式、程度的“分而治之”，通過制造一些“行動已經(jīng)奏效”的假象，安撫或籠絡那些具有“進步”思想或危害制度安全思想的人士，消解或緩和、籠絡由于單一問題或政治方面原因的政治激進主義。這些組織提供旅行考察的機會，提供國際會見、國際研究和數(shù)據(jù)庫的資源，提供見習機會，這樣可以在乏善可陳的簡歷上增光添彩，讓人產(chǎn)生為當代各種全球性問題“做了些事情”的虛幻成就感。它們有時提供“內(nèi)部”和定制的專業(yè)學位及認證證書，這些證書載有知名頭銜，與西方知名教育、商業(yè)和研究機構(gòu)有所往來。它們通過讓一些外圍國家地區(qū)的教育機構(gòu)、政治—經(jīng)濟機構(gòu)同西方權威機構(gòu)建立聯(lián)系和交流，立時提升了這些機構(gòu)的“可信度”，提高了其世界地位。

　　教科書、“文化產(chǎn)品”以及教育設備和軟件

　　在教科書、文學、音樂、時尚、電影、電視節(jié)目及教育等各領域中，為了出口相關的設備和軟件并切合當?shù)貞玫男枰?，作為帝國主義軟實力和硬實力的推行，美國及其西方盟國正在進行并不斷升級重要的創(chuàng)新和競爭。任何情況下，關于腦部科學、認知心理學、人類學、實驗心理學、經(jīng)濟學、政治類科學、教學法和其他規(guī)律的主要的探索成果，一切可以普遍適用和專用于某類文化的切入點、戰(zhàn)術和機制，只要有利于說服教育、塑造思想和開展宣傳，都會加以吸收利用。所有這些推行軟實力和硬實力的措施，其覆蓋的內(nèi)容、范圍和深度都經(jīng)過仔細考量、精心計算并停留在思想層面上，保證控制在正當合法的尺度內(nèi)而不觸犯法律。

　　這片領域的確算得上是一個富礦。由于很多教師和研究者確實是（或感覺到）工作強度很大，而這些設備和軟件被推銷成包裝精美、分門別類、“尖端水平”、掛有“金字招牌”、“易于掌握運用”、“省時省力”又綜合全面的商品，加之來自西方而被想象為“優(yōu)質(zhì)”和“先進”產(chǎn)品，因此很容易誘使他們接納和使用這些工具，但其實只不過是帝國主義文化和利益的載體。特別是一些學業(yè)負擔繁重的年輕的研究生們，常被指派去給本科生上各種專業(yè)基礎課，他們更容易成為這些營銷的目標人群。另外，營銷活動的最慣用的伎倆之一，就是通過對設備和軟件的相關設計與定價策略，使購買者對境外的關鍵性支持服務和后續(xù)進口形成極大依賴。

　　時尚、音樂、文學、電影、電視節(jié)目，也被用作軟實力和硬實力的工具。隱含在其經(jīng)過精心設計的內(nèi)容、形式和具體應用之中，一個最核心的信息就是，“外國”意味著優(yōu)等，應當加以效仿和追捧，而外圍民族的文化和歷史則是“劣等”的，甚至是導致外圍國家一切所謂“落后狀態(tài)”的所謂主要“原因”。這類商品的生產(chǎn)帶來了可觀的出口及東道國市場利潤，更重要的是，與資本主義相關聯(lián)的價值觀和文化優(yōu)勢，帝國主義霸權所推動的大眾消費，能夠而且現(xiàn)實地制造出了不同形式和程度的依附、奴役性債務陷阱、自主權的喪失。被“糖衣炮彈”擊中的國民，就像在都市化統(tǒng)治中心生活的各民族一樣，正在獲得這樣的認識：當我們以一個人“擁有”和消費什么東西、多少東西，而不是以一個擁有物品的人這個主體，來定義“個人自由”和幸福成功時，那么這些物品，以及那些進行推銷和提供融資的人，就有可能最終支配這個人。這些推行軟實力的措施十分強調(diào)而且強化了教育類形式，因為不少青年學生出于個人發(fā)展或其他原因，被異域或外國的時尚、音樂、文學、電影和電視節(jié)目所吸引；同時，他們也許貶低了自己所處的社會，認為社會沒能重視并提供這些“文明”“進步”的教具。

　　視覺、聽覺、線條、影像等技術與風格的創(chuàng)新，在范圍、深度和復雜程度各方面都與日俱增，應用于電影、電視、音樂、文學、藝術、時尚當中，使得“但愿長夢不愿醒”的心態(tài)以及逃避現(xiàn)實生活的疏離感越來越容易產(chǎn)生巨大的效果。影片、電視變得更加圖形化和情緒化，人們需要更新奇更刺激的輕松娛樂，而這些需求也確實得到了滿足。在人們欣賞電影或電視節(jié)目時，實際上這些作品運用了很多手法來促使觀眾們產(chǎn)生“暫時拋開一切懷疑”的念頭，而同樣的一些技術可以被用于而且也正在用于制造和培養(yǎng)其他服從于帝國主義利益的信念。設計這樣的技術，不僅是為了方便灌輸，也不僅僅是用當?shù)匚幕痪邆涞牡湫偷?ldquo;異域”風情吸引和挑逗觀眾，而是要對被視作帝國主義擴張之障礙的當?shù)匚幕右郧治g，并最終將其摧毀到失去個性識別度。

　　結(jié) 語

　　眾所周知，如果有可能的話，美國及其同盟者們將越來越避免硬實力的表現(xiàn)形式，避免對境外領土的實際侵占與控制。當?shù)搅擞矊嵙Ψ巧喜豢傻臅r候，美國的霸權集團正在發(fā)展更為靈活、敏捷、簡潔、“巧妙”卻是致命的武器和部署能力，而不是從實體上占領和管理大面積的境外領土。出于上文所述的原因及其他原因，它們越來越重視發(fā)展形式異常復雜的軟實力以及推行運用軟實力的手段。不過，帝國主義的軟實力推行絕非真的那么富有“柔性”和非強制性。如果我們將“強制”定義為一種力量，這種力量可以獲得贊同或者是迫使某人在不知情不自愿的情況下按照他人意愿行事，那么軟實力這種形式，特別是當它被開發(fā)運用到發(fā)揮人們潛意識的作用，運用到對信息予以制約和塑造，從而促使某人按照他人意愿和利益行事時，這種隱蔽性的強制權力同樣是具有極大強制性的。

　　帝國主義軟實力的目標，就在于維護和壯大其社會模式的特征、價值、信條和利益，使這種模式作為所有國家效仿的一種普世性范例，若是這樣無法得逞，再以公開強硬的武力相威脅，陷這些國家于持續(xù)的危險之中。隨著世界性危機的發(fā)生，以及帝國霸權被內(nèi)部不斷發(fā)酵的財政危機和社會—文化—政治衰落逼入死胡同，軟實力和硬實力這兩種力量形式的推行似乎都更加不計后果、孤注一擲。擁有和攫取得越多，就必須喪失得越多。帝國霸權的推行，無論對受害者來說，還是對霸權推行者來說，都經(jīng)常伴隨著比地震和颶風更具災難性的后果；同時，它如同地震和颶風一樣，盡管目前還無法徹底消除，但卻可以去認識、去了解。正是通過了解這些霸權施行的本質(zhì)、起源、途徑、措施和意圖，那些作為其對象和目標的國民才能最大程度地保護自己的文化、社會經(jīng)濟和政治法律體系，使其免遭逐步的破壞、侵蝕以至最終顛覆，維持自治、自決和獨立。

 

　　

　　International Education and Imperial Penetration, Co-optation and Control.

　　By James Craven/Oomahkohkiaaiipooyii

　　Introduction

　　The historically generated and globalized systems of colonialism and neo-colonialism, as in the cases of imperialism and neo-imperialism, carry common denominators (nouns colonialism and imperialism) because they have some fundamental features in common. They also have some features that are different—hence the adjective “neo” differentiating them from the classical forms. What they all have in common is that they are all systems that belong to specific historical periods, and, they all involve control, domination and exploitation of some regions, nations and peoples by others. Each type of system incorporates specific, historically determined, dynamic, formulae or algorithms, of direct and indirect, levels, structures and specific forms, of both hard and soft power. The strategic goals of colonial and imperial powers involve penetration, control, domination and exploitation of nations, regions and peoples of the “peripheries” for the benefit of the policies and expanded reproduction of the metropolitan colonizing or imperial power centers.

　　Classical colonialism and imperialism historically, have involved the more direct and physical penetration, taking, settling, holding and ongoing control of foreign territory through both distant and localized projections and transmissions of hard power; with some, but few, forms of soft power to follow. Generally neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism, involve projections of more indirect, and “softer” forms of power (economic, political, legal and cultural) from more distant bases transmitted through “dependent” and “captive” localized institutions and elites, with threats of hard power (overt military and covert operations) projections at the ready and certainly used when needed.

　　Even with decreasing costs of transport and communications globally, imperial powers prefer the more distant and softer forms of power (the “velvet glove”) over the more direct, localized and overtly brutal forms of hard power (the “iron fist”). This is not only due to the fact that imperial overreach and high costs of standing foreign bases and settlements overseas create fiscal and other crises within and throughout the metropolitan colonial and imperial centers, but, also, because the contradictions are more intense and naked, and the real exploitative nature and real winners and losers of imperial or colonial rule, are much clearer and naked with the more direct and brutal forms of hard power projections. The inevitable “collateral damage” on non-combatants that comes inexorably with hard power projections often serve to recruit rather than dampen, resistance to foreign domination and is not consistent with winning “hearts and minds” in the peripheries.

　　Another factor in the increasing use of “soft power”, with international education at the forefront, is that the technologies of more indirect, covert, subliminal and softer forms of coercion, influence, “education” and persuasion are increasingly sophisticated , harder to detect, and, more effective, as they allow and facilitate the exploited to more directly, and even “voluntarily”, participate in their own exploitation. As the martyred South African freedom fighter Steve Biko put it: “The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” And as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe put it: “None are more hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.”

　　At the core of the production functions of all social formations, and of both hard and soft power and the goals of their application , is education including international forms. Education provides the technical skills and personnel with expertise needed to develop the technologies of both hard and soft power as well as the most effective means for their global projections. Education sets the frames for what we are prepared to use our senses to discover (worthy versus unworthy topics) or even consider. Education shapes the prisms (paradigms) through which we use our senses, decide what of the data gathered by our senses we are likely to accept and reject, and, what sources and what “authorities” we are prepared to access, accept or reject. Education shapes how we see ourselves and our own socioeconomic and politico-legal systems relative to how we see others and their respective systems. Education shapes our views of what is sacred and what is taboo. Education shapes our views of history and which ‘aspects of our own history or the histories of others are worthy of focus and consideration. Education shapes our view of what is science and scientific method and how they are conducted and applied. Education shapes what we take to be our dominant “culture”, values, and imperatives of survival and expanded reproduction of the systems we live under. Education provides the incomes for mass consumption as well as the tastes and preferences shaping what we consume; and what we choose or are induced and/or seduced to consume, both reflects and shapes, our dominant values as well as what we need to produce, how to produce it, and, for whom, production and resource allocations shall take place. Education teaches what words are worth knowing and using and which not; and education shapes what words mean or do not mean—including the concept of “education” itself.

　　According to the neoconservatives (NC) and neoliberals (NL) in the U.S. and elsewhere, World War IV, the global war against terrorism, has been underway for some time. That begs some fundamental questions: What was or is World War III? When did it begin? Is it still underway? How is “victory” defined?

　　Many of the neoconservatives, and neoliberals too, see World War III as a global war between systems and ideologies for “Hearts and Minds”; and, according to them, it has been underway since around 1980. According to these forces, socialism and communism are “existential threats” to capitalism and what they euphemistically call “democracy”. The neoconservatives and neoliberals too, see this global war between systems and their respective ideologies as a long and protracted one that will only end with the final and irreversible “triumph” of capitalism over socialism, and Western-style political pluralism , which they equate with “democracy” over single-party rule. They understand very well that the types of people, institutions, relations, and values necessary for socialist construction and its defense are very different than those necessary for the “social capital” and expanded reproduction of capitalism on a global scale (ultra-individualism, mass consumerism, selfishness, materialism, inability to delay gratification , get-rich-quick, etc).

　　International Education in History

　　The use of International education by colonial and imperial powers as an instrument of power projection and rule has a long history. Even in Roman times, colonial and imperial power projections and intentions not only often brought with them genocide , but followed the two fundamental phases of genocide outlined by the originator of the word “genocide”, Polish Jurist Raphael Lemkin: 1) destruction of the “national pattern” of the groups targeted for genocide and/or foreign control over; 2) imposition of the national pattern of the colonial or imperial power conducting the genocide and/or power projections.

　　Even today, some of the top universities specializing in geography, anthropology and foreign languages are found in Great Britain as the British colonial and imperial powers understood what the U.S. Imperium is only beginning to understand: that when you have direct rule and occupation of foreign territory by large numbers of well-armed foreigners, in fortified military bases with extra-territorial powers over indigenous peoples, it makes it very clear to the locals who are the rulers and who are the ruled. They also understood that overseas bases can be costly, can generate fiscal and other crises in the home metropolitan social formations, and, when surrounded by potentially hostile indigenous populations, are highly vulnerable to attack. So the British set up the “D.C” or “District Commissioner” system where only a relatively few highly trained colonial administrators ruled through networks of local elites (mostly mixed-race and lighter-skinned indigenous persons) recruited and trained in the universities of the colonial and imperial powers, trained and installed to rule and aid in the projections colonial and imperial power over “their own” people. The British, like the U.S. today, not only preached they were part of a global “civilizing mission”, but projected their own political, economic, cultural, legal and social institutions, values and systems as “universal templates”, that all nations must copy, if they were to have any hope of the levels, forms and rates of growth of “civilization” said to be modeled by the colonial and imperial powers.

　　Missionaries, then as today, operating under various covers and fronts, including as “international educators”, were sent in as subcontractors in genocide and front men (and women) for colonial and imperial power projections and control. They followed the typical pattern captured in the phrase common among Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: “The 3-B system” or “Bible, Buck (dollar) and Bullet”. First the Bible, accompanied or followed by commercial interests, followed by military presences (troops and support bases) to facilitate more penetration and protect that which has occurred. The British, like many of their missionaries, understood, like the Roman Emperor Constantine who established Christianity as the dominant religion of the Roman Empire at the Council of Nicaea in the early fourth century AD, that in destroying existing indigenous institutions (“national patterns”) and replacing them with others, starting with, and then gradually co-opting, the existing institutions, such as sacred pagan holidays and rituals, was far more effective in ultimately smashing them and replacing them with others than in putting them directly and openly under siege. This meant that those seeking to smash the indigenous “national patterns” had to understand them, as well as local indigenous languages and/or had to hire, indoctrinate and train locals to do their bidding for them under various fronts and disguises.

　　Like the British, the U.S. Imperium is looking to the future and to long-term power projections and more apparently indirect and covert rule. They have set up “educational exchanges”, bringing in selected elites and individuals with potential to become elites in their home countries or elsewhere, hungry for educational opportunities and statuses not available in their home countries, to be indoctrinated with world views, practical tools and paradigms consistent with colonial and imperial interests and their power projections. Many of these elites were specifically groomed and equipped with educational and other backgrounds that would not only allow them to capture and hold positions of power in nominally local, indigenous and “de-colonized” institutions, but also to act as educators, politicians, scientists, missionaries, carriers of culture and influence and intelligence agents against local populations, in service of foreign powers as well.

　　

　　International Education Today

　　Foreign Language Studies and Exchanges

　　With the pace, scope and depth of globalization increasing daily, the imperative for international education is seen as more critical today than ever before. Increasingly, the most remote peoples, regions and social formations are being integrated and articulated within a dynamic global economy run in accordance with capitalist principles and imperatives. Not only are more non-English-speaking people under the imperative to learn English, but many English-speaking people are under the imperative to learn other emerging influential languages as well. All sorts of programs and exchanges are being set up, some actually doing what they openly claim to be doing, some not. These programs are not only about learning different languages, but are involved in cross-cultural awareness, establishing cross-border relationships and even obtaining work abroad when unemployment rates rise in some home economies.

　　Not all of the cultural and linguistic study and exchange programs are benign. In several of his books, former “economic hit man” (who worked for the U.S. National Security Agency helping to lure poor nations and despotic regimes into impossible-to-escape debt peonage) John Perkins discusses the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) now called SIL International, an ultra-conservative Christian evangelical group in the U.S. that specializes in the documentation, study of and training in rare and sometimes near-extinct Indigenous languages. They not only hold contracts to train Western intelligence services in these rare languages, they also allegedly train large transnational companies, like oil companies, to penetrate indigenous lands and cultures to force or co-opt them to turn over resource-rich lands and their resources to foreign companies by offering to move them to missionary reservations and to provide food, medicines and clothing in return for deeds to their lands. They are also involved in translations of the Bible into rare and near-extinct languages. Further, when one learns a new language, the specific constructs, terms, sources, vocabulary that one is exposed to and learns, along with those one is not exposed to and does not learn, serve to shape the paradigms, values, levels of useful knowledge and perspectives of that person learning with feedback effects on that person’s ideology, meanings of words and perspectives on various issues and interests even when operating in his or her own native language and in his or her own culture.

　　Foundations, Institutes and “Expertise”

　　There is a plethora of both established and new global foundations and institutes like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, etc., that organize international education exchanges, produce and distribute glossy publications, as well as operate as fronts (“think tanks”) for imperial interests and intentions. They have the capacity to give selected and favored academics and students forums and visibility for their academic publications, provide lucrative grants, provide research and teaching positions at prestigious schools and “think tanks”, and to establish all sorts of global working relationships and friendships that may be beneficial to imperial interests. They are presently looking to the future to find and cultivate young scholars and functionaries, potential future elites that can be recruited in the present to be placed in positions where they can rise in their respective countries and serve imperial interests in the future. Young academics are especially vulnerable to approach and manipulation in that as they are often young and have recent graduate degrees but little experience or publications, they can be given assistance with generating and publishing academic publications, in the right venues, that will fast-track them to upward mobility in academia at home and abroad. The young are often caught in a “Catch-22” trap where they cannot find employment or research opportunities because their resumes are light on experience or degrees from prestigious schools, and their resumes are light because they cannot find employment or research opportunities; these foundations offer them “Faustian Bargains” that allow them to instantly escape such traps or dilemmas. These foundations and institutes are also able to influence both foreign and domestic research directions, content and applications in service of imperial paradigms and interests and to shape perspectives on the debates and issues of the times.

　　Leading “experts” with big names from prestigious educational institutions in the West, are brought in to the peripheries and marketed as if they were like any other commodity. Often, when one examines their work, especially in the social sciences and arts, their work is really quite pedestrian and not at all “advanced” from what scholars in the peripheries are doing. But there is the power of branding and “brand names” (individuals and institutions) that allow them to be invited and to form relationships and associations to serve imperial interests well into the future. They also act as “attractors” to and “spotters”, and even “recruiters” of young scholars of the peripheries who have heard of them by reputation as authors of texts or touted research, or as individuals with impressive titles and credentials and who seek their patronage to secure their own futures, often in the imperial centers to which they hope to emigrate, work and where increasing percentages remain. They are agents of brain drains that loot some of the most skilled and talented to the metropolitan centers of the Imperium.

　　All sorts of Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), more than 50,000 today, are involved in international education and exchanges. They are generally organized around specific single issues and are often titled to show their particular issues or areas of focus. Some not only act as fronts for various Western commercial and intelligence interests, but they help to dissipate or co-opt individuals with “progressive” or system-threatening ideologies and passions with forms and levels of “divide-and-rule” and illusions of effective action that often go with, and yet dissipate or mitigate or co-opt, political activism on single-issue causes or politics. They offer opportunities for travel, for global contacts, research and data bases, for internships, to embellish meager resumes, and, to give some comfort with the illusion of “doing something” about various global issues of the times. They recruit foreign students with specialized skills (foreign languages, mathematics, science, knowledge of foreign cultures and politics, computers, etc) in subjects that the educational systems of the West simply cannot or will not equip students from the Western nations to acquire and apply. They sometimes offer “in-house” and customized academic degrees and certificates that carry prestigious titles and are associated with prestigious educational, business and research institutions in the West and abroad. The give educational and politico-economic institutions in the periphery instant “credibility” and enhanced global standings with associations and exchange programs with prestigious institutions of the Western Imperium.

　　

　　Textbooks, “Culture”, and Educational Hardware and Software

　　In the areas of exporting and adapting to local uses, textbooks, literature, music, fashion, movies, television programs and educational and other hardware and software, as forms of imperial soft and hard power projections, the U.S. and Western allies are making and stepping-up major innovations and campaigns. In all cases, major “discoveries” in brain science, cognitive psychology, anthropology, experimental psychology, economics, political science, pedagogy and other disciplines, associated with universal, as well as culturally-specific triggers, tactics and mechanisms of persuasion and the shaping of ideologies and agenda, are being incorporated. What is carefully, calculatingly and ideologically controlled in all these instruments of soft and hard power are the allowable versus non-allowable, content, scopes and depths of coverage.

　　This is especially fertile ground as many teachers and researchers are, or feel, overworked, and thus hardware and software, marketed as packaged, glossy, structured, “state-of-the-art”, prestigious “brand name”, “easy-to-use-and-apply”, “labor-saving” and comprehensive, plus from the West and thus supposedly “superior” and “advanced”, are easily induced to adopt and use these tools marketed as labor-saving but in essence carriers of imperial culture and interests. Young graduate students, with heavy workloads, often assigned to teach undergraduate and foundational courses in various academic disciplines, are especially targeted by these marketing approaches. Plus, built into some of the hardware and software being exported are “backdoors” that allow surveillance of computers and their connections and applications from a distance. In addition, one of the oldest tricks in marketing is to design and price hardware and software to as to cause dependence on critical supporting services and complementary inputs from abroad.

　　Fashion, music, literature, movies and television programs are also used as instruments of soft and hard power. Embodied in their calculated content, forms and applications are the central message that “foreign” means superior, to be emulated and preferred, and that which is part of the culture and history of the peoples of the “peripheries” is “inferior” and, even the major alleged “cause” of any alleged “backwardness” in the nations of the peripheries. Not only are very lucrative export and domestic markets created with these types of commodities, but, in addition, the values and priorities associated with capitalism and the mass consumerism pushed by the imperial powers, can and do create forms and levels of debt peonage, dependence and loss of autonomy . People in the nations targeted by imperial interests, are learning, as are the peoples of the metropolitan centers, that when one defines “personal freedom” and prosperity in terms of what and how much one “owns” and consumes, instead of a person owning things, the things, and those who sold and financed them, may well wind up owning that person. These instruments of soft power articulate with and reinforce the forms of soft power in education as many young students, for developmental and other reasons, are attracted to “exotic” or “foreign” fashions, music, literature, movies and television and they may devalue their own societies that perceive to have failed to value and provide these trappings of “civilization” and “progress”.

　　Exponentially increasing—in scope, depth and sophistication---innovations in optics, audio, graphics, film technique and genres, and, the like, applied to movies, television, music, literature, art and fashion, make the “suspension of disbelief” and escape from the realities of life easier and easier to effect on a mass level. Films and television get increasingly graphic and sensational with new and more intense levels of titillation (modern versions of the Roman “bread and circus”) are being demanded and those demands met. The same technologies employed to make masses “suspend disbelief” when they go to movies or watch television can be employed and are employed to create and nurture other kinds of beliefs in service of imperial interests. They are designed not only to indoctrinate, not only to draw in and titillate audiences with the “exotic” typically not found in local cultures, they are also designed to undermine and eventually destroy beyond recognition the indigenous cultures seen as obstacles to imperial expanded reproduction.

　　Conclusion

　　By all accounts, in the U.S. and its allies, are increasingly eschewing, if possible, forms of hard power and the actual taking and holding, physically, of foreign territory. When hard power projections are necessary, the U.S. Imperium is developing more agile, rapid, flexible, precise, “smart”, transitory and lethal weapons and deployment capabilities rather than physically occupying and holding large areas of foreign territories. They are focusing more and more on developing very sophisticated forms soft power and methods of soft power projections and their applications for the reasons that have been discussed previously along with other reasons. But imperial soft power projections are not really that “soft” and non-coercive. If we define “coercion” as the force of obtaining consent or causing someone to act according to the will of others without fully informed and voluntary consent, then forms of soft power, especially when developed and applied to have subliminal effects or to limit or shape information to cause someone to act in accordance with the will and interests of others, then such power is also very coercive with its true concealed coercive powers but another coercive instrument.

　　The object of imperial soft power is to develop and assert the features, values, imperatives and interests of the imperial social formation as a universal template for all to emulate or to be in perpetual peril (subject to move overtly hard and coercive forms of power) with the failure to do so. With global crises and imperial powers increasingly cornered with mounting internal fiscal crises and socio-cultural-political decay, both the forms of soft and hard power projections are likely to be more reckless and desperate; the more one has and has acquired, the more one has to lose. Imperial power projections, like earthquakes and hurricanes, often with even more disastrous effects on both the victims and power projectors alike than those of hurricanes and earthquakes, cannot be stopped at present but can be understood. And it is in understanding their nature, origins, methods, instruments and intentions that those who are the objects and targets of these power projections can best protect themselves and their own sovereignty , self-determination, independence, cultures and socio-economic and politico-legal systems from gradual sabotage , erosion and eventual overthrow .