Since the 2010s, the global political and economic landscape has experienced profound shifts, marked by multipolarity, deglobalization, resurging nationalism, and intensifying geopolitical rivalries (Teo, 2024; Marginson, 2025a). The erosion of a unipolar liberal order and the emergence of competing power blocs have disrupted long-standing assumptions about international cooperation—including those underpinning global higher education. Once largely perceived as an apolitical, collaborative enterprise, the internationalization of higher education (IHE) is now deeply enmeshed in geopolitical calculations, affecting academic exchange, talent mobility, transnational education, and international research collaboration.
Traditionally, IHE has been understood as the integration of international, intercultural, or global dimensions into postsecondary education (Knight, 2004). This liberal internationalist framework emphasized mutual understanding, cross-border knowledge sharing, and global competence. It facilitated mass student and faculty mobility, collaborative research, and the establishment of branch campuses abroad. Universities pursued global visibility, and governments framed internationalization as a strategy for competitiveness and soft power.
However, geopolitical disruptions have reframed IHE as a contested and strategic policy field. It is now entangled with national security concerns, economic protectionism, and ideological tensions. Programs like the “China Initiative” (2018–2022) in the United States (U.S.) significantly chilled academic collaboration, particularly in science and technology (Chen, 2024), while many countries have begun scrutinizing international partnerships and foreign student admissions through the lens of strategic risk.
The COVID-19 pandemic further amplified these trends. It halted international student flows, disrupted research collaboration, and exposed the vulnerabilities of tuition-dependent financial models. Australia’s reliance on Chinese students, for instance, drew criticism when diplomatic tensions intensified during the pandemic (Ramaswamy & Kumar, 2021). In response, governments recalibrated their internationalization strategies to align with national development priorities, security imperatives, and regional diplomacy (Fenton-Smith & Gurney, 2024).
This paper examines how five major higher education systems—China, the U.S., Australia, Japan, and South Korea—have adapted to these new geopolitical realities. Each country occupies a strategic position in the evolving global order and faces unique political, economic, and demographic pressures. China is pursuing a proactive, state-led approach aligned with initiatives like the Belt and Road and the Double First-Class Initiative. The U.S., while still a global academic powerhouse, is emphasizing risk sensitivity and technological sovereignty. Australia has shifted toward diversification and Indo-Pacific regionalism. Japan is refining a quality-oriented, risk-sensitive, and digitally enabled model, and South Korea is linking internationalization with demographic recovery and regional revitalization.
Drawing on policy documents, institutional strategies, and recent theoretical frameworks—including glonacal agency, responsible internationalization, and strategic regionalism—this paper adopts a comparative, multi-scalar lens to analyze the changing logic of international engagement in higher education. It argues that internationalization is no longer a linear or inherently liberal process but a highly differentiated, contested, and politically contingent field of policymaking.
Futao Huang
Futao Huang is a Professor at the Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan. His major academic fields include internationalization of higher education, academic profession, and designing university and college curricula from a comparative perspective.
Masako Kotake
Masako Kotake is an Associate Professor at the Organization for Education Development & Student Service, Mie University, Japan. Her current research topics include the internationalization of higher education, international faculty, and policy innovation in higher education.
Yangson Kim
Yangson Kim is an Associate Professor at the Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan. Her current research topics are internationalization, academic profession, and knowledge society in higher education.
Lilan Chen
Lilan Chen is a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at The University of Osaka, Japan. She is interested in research topics concerning the internationalization of higher education, diversity, equity, and inclusion in Japan’s higher education landscape. Her recent research focuses on international students, international academics, early-career researchers, and female academics.
Xin Li
Xin Li is a Specially Appointed Postdoc Researcher at the Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan. Her research focuses on University Missions and Functions, Research Policy, Academic Identity, and Comparative Studies of Developing Countries.
Tsukasa Daizen
Tsukasa Daizen is a Specially Appointed Professor in the Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University, Japan. His specialty is sociology of education, especially focusing on academic profession, academic productivity, and faculty development. His recent publications include Research activities of Japanese Academic Profession, The Internationalization of Educational and Research Activities of Japanese University Academic Staff, Education and Research Activities of the Academic Profession in Japan.
