ABSTRACT
This chapter situates study abroad within the evolving geopolitical context and explores its role in public diplomacy, regional engagement and global positioning. While the literature highlights the impacts of study abroad including transformative learning, cultural and linguistic development, and the growing trend of short-term mobility, persistent challenges remain. These include inequities in access, structural imbalances between Global North and South partnerships, and tensions arising from neoliberal, postcolonial, and consumerist dynamics in international education. The chapter critiques the commodification of study abroad and the potential for reinforcing colonial discourses and cultural tourism, calling for more critical, reflexive, and decolonising approaches. It also highlights the underexplored social impacts of study abroad on the home and host communities. This chapter introduces the theoretical framework that underpins the book, combining Amartya Sen’s capability approach with Tran and Phan’s concepts of mobility as becoming, connecting, and contributing. This integrated framework offers a lens to examine how study abroad is framed within the broader geopolitical, social and economic context and how students navigate opportunities and barriers to achieve valued personal and communal outcomes.
