Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education
Special Issue: Malign Foreign Influence
Call for Proposals
Guest editor: Kyle A. Long, Northwestern University
This special issue will explore rising concern about undue foreign influence in higher education. The internationalization of higher education has promoted intercultural understanding and prepared graduates for a global workforce. Until recently, these noble rationales have often obscured more nefarious ones. Governments and private actors have long exploited international education for political or financial gain. The decline of liberal democracy and ascent of authoritarianism, however, has challenged international education by stoking fears about foreigners compromising national defense, interfering in domestic political processes, and displacing cultural heritage.
In the United States, especially since 2016, fears of injurious foreign interference have prompted government officials to impose policies that impact faculty, students, and administrators. The Department of Justice has begun bringing charges against American citizens for failing to disclose foreign research partnerships. The Department of State has cancelled visas of international students with ties to military-affiliated universities in their home countries. The Department of Education started a probe into universities’ under-reported foreign donations. The Department of Defense has rendered ineligible for funding any university that hosts a Confucius Institute. Indeed, many recent U.S. policies are responses to fears about China, specifically, but they could have a chilling effect on international education more broadly. It remains to be seen whether the new presidential administration will maintain these same concerns, but federal and state legislatures have already this year introduced bills with bi-partisan support in response to perceived malign influence on American higher education.
This phenomenon extends beyond the United States. The United Kingdom and Australia have also set up task forces to counter foreign interference in higher education. In authoritarian regimes, where international higher education has been perceived as a threat to sovereignty, the consequences can be swift and substantial. Hungarian authorities, for example, forced Central European University out of the country by stripping it of its license to issue degrees.
These and other examples of espionage, propaganda, and sedition suggest that higher education is increasingly a venue for and instrument of strategic corruption or sharp power. Higher education’s contribution to the development of a country’s soft power is well known. But the exploitation or weaponization of higher education for geopolitical gain is less chronicled and under-theorized.
Scholarship in this special issue should highlight the apprehensions or actions of government leaders, policymakers, educators, and/or other key stakeholders about actual or perceived malign foreign influence on educational systems or institutions. To that end, contributions might address one or more of the following themes:
Diverse types of compositions and methods are welcome, including but not limited to: case studies; cross-national comparisons; historical essays; policy analyses; theoretical articles; and quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches. Submissions from outside North America are especially encouraged.
To express interest, submit a 500-word abstract via the Journal’s submission site by September 1, 2021. Select authors will be invited to submit full manuscripts. All special issue manuscripts will be subjected to a blind-review peer-editing process. Please consult the JCIHE author guidelines for information on preparing your submission. For any other questions, please contact kyle.long@northwestern.edu.
Special Issue: Malign Foreign Influence
Call for Proposals
Guest editor: Kyle A. Long, Northwestern University
This special issue will explore rising concern about undue foreign influence in higher education. The internationalization of higher education has promoted intercultural understanding and prepared graduates for a global workforce. Until recently, these noble rationales have often obscured more nefarious ones. Governments and private actors have long exploited international education for political or financial gain. The decline of liberal democracy and ascent of authoritarianism, however, has challenged international education by stoking fears about foreigners compromising national defense, interfering in domestic political processes, and displacing cultural heritage.
In the United States, especially since 2016, fears of injurious foreign interference have prompted government officials to impose policies that impact faculty, students, and administrators. The Department of Justice has begun bringing charges against American citizens for failing to disclose foreign research partnerships. The Department of State has cancelled visas of international students with ties to military-affiliated universities in their home countries. The Department of Education started a probe into universities’ under-reported foreign donations. The Department of Defense has rendered ineligible for funding any university that hosts a Confucius Institute. Indeed, many recent U.S. policies are responses to fears about China, specifically, but they could have a chilling effect on international education more broadly. It remains to be seen whether the new presidential administration will maintain these same concerns, but federal and state legislatures have already this year introduced bills with bi-partisan support in response to perceived malign influence on American higher education.
This phenomenon extends beyond the United States. The United Kingdom and Australia have also set up task forces to counter foreign interference in higher education. In authoritarian regimes, where international higher education has been perceived as a threat to sovereignty, the consequences can be swift and substantial. Hungarian authorities, for example, forced Central European University out of the country by stripping it of its license to issue degrees.
These and other examples of espionage, propaganda, and sedition suggest that higher education is increasingly a venue for and instrument of strategic corruption or sharp power. Higher education’s contribution to the development of a country’s soft power is well known. But the exploitation or weaponization of higher education for geopolitical gain is less chronicled and under-theorized.
Scholarship in this special issue should highlight the apprehensions or actions of government leaders, policymakers, educators, and/or other key stakeholders about actual or perceived malign foreign influence on educational systems or institutions. To that end, contributions might address one or more of the following themes:
- Official yet controversial foreign policy programs such as Confucius Institutes or The Thousand Talents Plan
- Ostensibly benign mechanisms manipulated for malignant purposes such as international exchange, transnational program/institution administration, or cross-border research partnerships;
- Traditional malign influence tools such as propaganda, disinformation, or espionage in the context of higher education;
- Resources leveraged for malign influence concerning higher education such as official development assistance, private philanthropy, or donor networks
- Counter-influence policies, legislation, and/or task forces and other monitoring activities that involve higher education;
- Institutional and sub-national responses to malign influence in higher education
- Foreign exploitation of resurgent partisanship, xenophobia, and nationalism vis-à-vis higher education
Diverse types of compositions and methods are welcome, including but not limited to: case studies; cross-national comparisons; historical essays; policy analyses; theoretical articles; and quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches. Submissions from outside North America are especially encouraged.
To express interest, submit a 500-word abstract via the Journal’s submission site by September 1, 2021. Select authors will be invited to submit full manuscripts. All special issue manuscripts will be subjected to a blind-review peer-editing process. Please consult the JCIHE author guidelines for information on preparing your submission. For any other questions, please contact kyle.long@northwestern.edu.
The Emergence of the American University Abroad
The American public is losing trust in its higher education institutions. Americans are increasingly divided about the purposes of a college education, with opinions split along partisan lines. The country’s higher education leaders have responded with a litany of conferences, op-eds, and commissions aimed at regaining the public trust. While these efforts are necessary and important, they are more likely to be successful if supplemented with a view from abroad. The independent American university abroad is the oldest and most successful expression of U.S. higher education outside the United States. First established by Protestant missionaries in the Ottoman Empire during the U.S. Civil War, American universities abroad have since spread across the globe. Many enjoy widespread popularity in their communities and bipartisan support in the U.S.
The Emergence of the American University Abroad explores the development of this model as a distinctive institutional form in the U.S. higher education landscape. It traces the long history of support by American private citizens, the U.S. government, and stateside colleges and universities for these overseas institutions, and shows how leaders of American universities abroad have periodically come together to make sense of their changing environments and strategically align their messaging with potential supporters.
I demonstrate that what is most valuable about American higher education emerges clearly when it is practiced outside the United States. While discourse about higher education in the United States and around the world has shifted unequivocally toward its conceptualization as a private good, leaders of, and advocates for, American universities abroad have been remarkably consistent in promoting their public benefits. As such, study of these institutions represents a unique opportunity to reflect on underappreciated, yet essential features of American higher education.
The American public is losing trust in its higher education institutions. Americans are increasingly divided about the purposes of a college education, with opinions split along partisan lines. The country’s higher education leaders have responded with a litany of conferences, op-eds, and commissions aimed at regaining the public trust. While these efforts are necessary and important, they are more likely to be successful if supplemented with a view from abroad. The independent American university abroad is the oldest and most successful expression of U.S. higher education outside the United States. First established by Protestant missionaries in the Ottoman Empire during the U.S. Civil War, American universities abroad have since spread across the globe. Many enjoy widespread popularity in their communities and bipartisan support in the U.S.
The Emergence of the American University Abroad explores the development of this model as a distinctive institutional form in the U.S. higher education landscape. It traces the long history of support by American private citizens, the U.S. government, and stateside colleges and universities for these overseas institutions, and shows how leaders of American universities abroad have periodically come together to make sense of their changing environments and strategically align their messaging with potential supporters.
I demonstrate that what is most valuable about American higher education emerges clearly when it is practiced outside the United States. While discourse about higher education in the United States and around the world has shifted unequivocally toward its conceptualization as a private good, leaders of, and advocates for, American universities abroad have been remarkably consistent in promoting their public benefits. As such, study of these institutions represents a unique opportunity to reflect on underappreciated, yet essential features of American higher education.
