Foreign Students in the U.S.: A Good, Cheap Way to Spread Democracy

As Washington wonders how to encourage democratic reform in places like North Korea, Myanmar (formerly Burma), and Iran and shore up new democracies in the Middle East and Africa, a not so obvious answer is: invite their kids to study in the U.S. About one in five of the 3.3 million foreign students worldwide who were enrolled in college outside their home countries in 2008 were in the U.S., according to a study by Michel Beine and colleagues at the University of Luxembourg. Foreign-educated students have an outsize impact when they go home.

In 2013, scholar Marion Mercier of the Paris School of Economics looked at the backgrounds of more than 900 presidents and prime ministers in developing countries since 1960. She found that leaders who had spent time abroad as military attachés or for military training were more likely to endorse policies restricting democracy after they came to power. Those who had studied overseas earlier in their lives were more likely to embrace democracy, including former President Ricardo Escobar of Chile and former Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka. Of course, the record is far from perfect: Syria’s Bashar al-Assad studied ophthalmology in the U.K. But overall, Mercier’s work suggests studying abroad can be a powerful positive force for democratic leadership.