Nation-states and international organizations widely use educational programs to foster students’ mobility abroad. The majority of scientific literature agrees in considering exchange programs as soft power instruments used by countries to promote their values in geopolitically and economically crucial regions. However, a more in-depth analysis of the reasons motivating nation-states to adopt such initiatives is needed to understand their political goals better. The current study consists of analysing the main formulations proposed by scholars, who delved into the topic of international academic mobility as a tool to promote values. The rationales of nation-states and international organizations to develop such programs of academic mobility can be very diverse (geopolitical, economic, and civic). The author described the main principles of each rationale (or logic), providing examples of existing educational programs adopted by countries or international organizations and how political values are promoted according to each logic. The boundaries between the four rationales described in the paper are not distinct and rigid. An educational program can respond at the same time to different logics, and the nation-states decide how to allocate resources to achieve specific results ascribable to a particular rationale. Although different rationales push nation-states and international organizations in promoting international programs of academic mobility, in all cases, such programs are instruments to promote political values.