Mapping the Undefinable: Some Thoughts on the Relevance of Exchange Programs within International Relations Theory.

This article examines the importance of exchange programs as channels of political influence and the value that can be gained from examining their impact via various theoretical positions in international relations (IR). Although there are clear possibilities for linking the study of public diplomacy with IR theory, so far this has not occurred to any real extent. Following World War II, a whole swathe of social scientific and behavioralist research, mainly in the fields of communications and psychology, laid the basis for understanding the political implications of public diplomacy and exchanges. Using these studies as a springboard, the article moves on first to consider their continuing relevance and then to insert exchanges within reflections on IR fields such as regime theory, Gramscian-based critical theory, constructivism, epistemic communities, and transnational networks. The article concludes with some observations on the relevance of exchanges as forms of cultural-political interchange and the use of case studies for confirming their importance as an object of study for IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]