This paper argues that imperialism continues to exist today. It focuses on the ideational dimension of such power constellation and highlights the role of "educational diplomacy". Specifically, it examines norm-settings within international educational politics as a way of identifying shifts within what might be called benevolent imperialism. At the centre of its analysis is the global dimension of the project aimed at establishing a European Area of Higher Education, also called the Bologna process. The paper examines three aspects of the process in more detail: (1) its main legal framework, (2) the European Register of Quality Assurance Agencies, and (3) the setting in which the European ministers have embedded the new international strategy of the Bologna process on the occasion of the follow-up conference in London 2007. The question it addresses is: to what extent is the Bologna process merely a form of Americanisation, or is there a set of European norms emerging that are accepted in other regions, suggesting that the EU is a new, emerging, imperialising power? (Contains 9 notes.)