Soft power: 21 world leaders educated in France

All audiences

The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), an independent, evidence-based research institute for higher education, has published the results of its new soft power index. Every year for seven years, this index measures the number of serving world leaders (monarchs, presidents and prime ministers) educated at a higher level in countries other than their own. With 21 profiles, France stands third on the podium ranking.

In diplomacy, soft power is the ability of States to apply influence strategies. Such strategies may be applied via traditional diplomacy, with the spread of its culture and economic support, and education. And, as has written French newspaper Le Monde, which dedicated no less than two articles to this subject, welcoming foreign students is “a political, scientific, economic and cultural soft power”.

France in third place

According to HEPI’s director, who commented the results of this new ranking, the number of world leaders educated in other countries “reflects the standing of different educational systems and is a good proxy for the amount of soft power held by different countries”. With 21 international leaders educated on its territory, France ranks 3rd country with strongest influence in world.

Though the US and the UK have been trusting the first two places for several years, “benefiting from having English as the most common language”, France is right behind them. And France is considerably ahead of Russia in fourth place with 10 world leaders educated in Russia. Four countries follow, the only other countries that have educated more than five serving world leaders: Switzerland (7), Australia (6), Italy (6) and Spain (6).

And HEPI concludes: “it is no accident that the countries that top the global university league tables are the same ones that educate the most people who go on to head up their own countries”.

Leaders educated in France

Serving leaders educated in France include ten serving presidents, nine prime ministers and two monarchs.

Serving presidents include the president of Georgia, Salomé Zourabichvili, present in the list, who graduated in Sciences Po Paris. Greek president Ekateríni Sakellaropoúlou, attended environmental law studies at the Panthéon-Assas university. The same goes for Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who graduated from the École nationale d'administration française (ENA).
Heads of State include Anatole Collinet Makosso, Prime Minister of Congo, who defended a doctorate thesis in criminal international law at the University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas, and Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister of Norway, who is an alumni of Sciences Po Paris (international relations, 1985).
Monarchs include the King of Morrocco Mohammed VI, holder of a law doctorate passed with honours at the University of Nice-Sofia Antipolis in 1993, and Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, who abdicated in January 2024 and who attended in her youth studies in political science at the Sorbonne University.