At a time when global trust in U.S. leadership is fragile, the federal government is proposing a staggering 93 percent cut to international educational and cultural exchange programs in its fiscal year 2026 budget. This decision, if enacted, would not only undercut a bipartisan tradition of U.S. soft power diplomacy, it would amount to a strategic unforced error, one that surrenders the United States’ global influence to rising powers like China, lessening U.S. credibility with partners and allies.
The United States has been the leader in international exchange programs for decades, hosting up to a million international students annually, while more than a quarter-million American students have gone abroad. The U.S. students who have participated in study abroad return home more globally aware, linguistically skilled, and better equipped to lead in diplomacy, business, education, and national security. They become citizen diplomats, carrying firsthand experiences that help bridge divides long after their return.
I have had this experience. As a Fulbright student in then-West Germany during the Reagan years, I often found myself the target of fierce debates over U.S. foreign policy. I didn’t represent the Reagan administration – I was there to learn as a postgraduate exchange scholar at the University of Freiburg – but to many of my German peers, I was the living, breathing face of the United States, including sharing the name “Nancy” with the First Lady. Some days it was challenging; other days, warm and enlightening. Every day was formative, in that it allowed me to mature and see the world through others’ perspectives. It was my initiation into the world of public diplomacy, and it left a mark that shaped my entire career.
Such exchanges are not apolitical, nor are they neutral. And governments know this. That’s why countries invest in them or re-evaluate their value. I’m all for trimming and cutting. I worked for the Department of State and United States Information Agency, overseers of government-sponsored exchange programs. The state rationale for congressional cuts from a FY2025 budget of $741 million to a proposed FY2026 budget of $50 million is “to ensure alignment with America First policies, continued relevance in the 21st century, and effectiveness.”
As we close doors on educational and cultural exchange programs from our historical top ranking, we will open doors to rivals and competitors who are more than eager to fill the vacuum left by the United States.
China, in particular, has expanded its global education footprint dramatically. With generous government scholarships, language institutes, and overseas campus initiatives, it is already a global leader in educational diplomacy. While U.S. leaders debate whether to cut our exchanges to the bone, China is busy building lifelong allies through shared classrooms and cultural immersion. The period following the 2008 Beijing Olympics has only accelerated this shift.
When I first taught at Tsinghua University in Beijing in 2007, I could already see this transition coming – an awareness that the 21st century might well be China’s, just as the 20th had been the United States’. That insight didn’t make me any less committed to U.S. values. It made me more committed to making sure we stayed engaged.
The United States does itself no favors when it shrinks from the world. Such exchange programs are a necessity for the kind of U.S. leadership this century demands. It equips students not just to analyze global problems, but to understand how others see the United States – our strengths, yes, but also our blind spots. For students heading to the Middle East or Europe, I always advise them to read deeply and think critically about U.S. foreign policy. They won’t just be seen as students. They will be seen, fairly or unfairly, as symbols of U.S. choices. If they’re prepared, they can turn those moments of confrontation into moments of connection. And that’s where the real power lies.
International students still come to the United States each year in numbers over three times the number of Americans who go abroad. Those numbers will likely change. If we want the next generation of global leaders to understand and respect the United States, then we must be willing to meet them halfway – not only by welcoming them here, but by showing that we, too, are willing to learn from them. It is our strength and it takes investment, not shutting down.
Cutting these programs sends a dangerous message: that we’ve stopped showing up for the world. And when it comes to exchange diplomacy, presence is power.