With the rapid growth worldwide in numbers of people participating in international educational exchanges, the need to better understand the various roles such exchanges can play in social and political life also increases. This introduction chapter to the volume provides an overview of the current state of international educational exchange worldwide and the reasons for its importance, and then looks specifically at the complex and understudied relationship between educational exchanges and public diplomacy. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017.