The Trump administration’s attempt to block Harvard, with its global reputation for academic excellence, from enrolling international students adds to a growing list of measures that risk severely undercutting American “soft power.”
A federal judge has placed a temporary hold on the Harvard ban.
But the president’s move was just part of a wider ideological battle he has waged against dozens of long-established programs designed to promote diversity and cooperation at home and abroad — and to expand US influence in the process.
Trump has ordered deep cuts in foreign aid, canceled or seriously scaled back university research programs — raising fears of a brain drain as top academics seek work abroad — and launched attacks on media, including by silencing the historic Voice of America.
Then in early May, Trump threatened to levy a 100 percent tariff on movies shown in the US but produced abroad.
That would have, for instance, a devastating impact on films like Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” the biggest-budget American movie being shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It was filmed largely in Britain and South Africa.
Trump has also attacked some of the country’s most august cultural institutions, from the Smithsonian museums in Washington — which the Republican president accuses of “ideological indoctrination” — to the capital’s prestigious Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he has appointed himself chairman.
The concept of “soft power” was first enunciated in the 1980s by the late political scientist Joseph Nye, who defined it as a country’s ability to achieve desired outcomes by attraction, not by coercion, payment or force.
That, in the eyes of Trump’s critics, is exactly the opposite of what the US president has achieved. His constantly evolving trade wars and attacks on international alliances have damaged US prestige, even impacting the number of foreign tourists coming to the country.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, sharply denounced Trump’s move against Harvard.
“International students contribute to our economy, support US jobs and are among our most powerful tools of diplomacy and soft power,” she said in a statement.
“This reckless action does lasting damage to our global influence,” she added.
Harvard’s many prominent graduates include Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Taiwan Tresident Lai Ching-te.
While the judge’s suspension of the Harvard ban gave it some respite, Trump’s moves against the school have sent shivers through American academia, and beyond.
Huge foreign enrollment
Every year, American universities draw hundreds of thousands of foreign students, notably from Asia. International students account for one-fourth of Harvard’s enrollment, a major source of revenue.
In the 2023-24 academic year, more than 1,125,000 foreign students were enrolled at US campuses, a record number according to the Institute of International Education. They generally pay much more in tuition than US residents.
The largest numbers, in descending order, come from India, China and South Korea, with the top fields of study being math, computer science and engineering.
With the US and China locked in a fierce rivalry for global influence, Beijing was quick to react to the latest move against Harvard.
“China has consistently opposed the politicization of educational collaboration,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday, adding that the US move would “only tarnish its own image and reputation in the world.”
The Trump administration, for its part, insists that American universities like Harvard have become breeding grounds for leftist extremism, and it asserts that they waste enormous amounts of money in uselessly promoting diversity and inclusion.
“You’ve got a wonderful kid, he’s done very, very well, and then you send him to Harvard, and the kid comes home and you don’t even recognize them; and they’re definitely primed to be a fabulous left-wing activist, but they’re maybe not going to be able to get a job,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Thursday when asked about the issue.
During a congressional hearing this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the cuts in US foreign aid.
The intent is “not to dismantle American foreign policy and it is not to withdraw us from the world,” he said, but rather to maximize aid in keeping with an “America First” approach.
Nye, the soft-power theoretician and onetime assistant US secretary of defense, died early this month.
But in an email exchange with AFP in February, he offered a blunt assessment of Trump’s approach.
The president, he said, “only thinks in terms of coercion and payment.”
That, he added, ignores a proven source of US influence.
“Our success over the past eight decades,” Nye said, “has also been based on attractiveness.”
