Detoxing internationalisation from Trumpist malady

In 2017 the United States president, Donald Trump, declared: “There is no global flag, no global currency, no global citizenship.” Earlier, in 2016, the former United Kingdom prime minister, Theresa May, exclaimed: “If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere.”

These open and hostile statements have had a chilling effect on the essence, spirit and praxis of higher education internationalisation as manifested in its multiple forms.

I noted in a piece I wrote that, during the past few years, there has been “the emergence (and escalation) of unilateralism, nationalism and provincialism around the world. Countries which for a long period championed vigorous multilateral views and deeds have been increasingly challenged by internal issues which tended to be disproportionately inward-looking.”

I went on to argue that the “simplistic, but populist, view that a country’s internal problems reside external to its borders has slowly trickled into the psyche of many countries and has, in effect, muscled out multilateralist views and principles”.

Unilateralism takes hold

What were the implications of such hostile statements to internationalisation far and beyond the jurisdictions of those countries mentioned above? Some countries followed to restrict and ban the movement of students and academics, riding on the sentiments of vocal internal political forces fuelled by Trump’s vitriolic rhetoric.

Even more so, alleged and trumpeted high-profile espionage cases involving industrial secrets and research involving certain demonised countries have further undermined the spirit of academic collaboration.

We have witnessed travel embargoes on multiple countries, a number of them in Africa, including Nigeria – the most populous nation on the continent. In another episodic hostility, Trump sought to restrict student travel to the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic arguing that studies could take place virtually and thus there was no reason for travel to the country.

Other countries have also selectively restricted migration into their territories except to those with high-end skills and knowledge, stealthily siphoning off experts and resources which make them more globally competitive.

In keeping with this trend, unilateralist forces have been slowly weakening multilateralist forces, institutions and discourses. Multilateral principles, which also govern international collaboration and development cooperation, have been frowned upon as unilateralism has taken hold in a number of major global power centres.

The dignity of science

The currency and capital of science have seen a steady decline in the past several years amid a torrent of assault by the incumbency of the White House. The denial of climate change, which is the most notable one, led to the subsequent withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate accord.

If an iota of hope in the cacophony of denials remained, that, too, met its fatal fate when Trump obscenely suggested – in a media briefing – injecting oneself with a bleach to cure COVID-19 out of fatal ignorance and sheer disdain for science and truth. Equally, it is difficult to overlook the behaviour of the very scientists who watched this declaration of shame and infamy against not just science, but simple common sense, without vigorously – and aggressively – countering it outright.

The Trump era may be remembered as an unfortunate time in the US and world history when facts, truth and knowledge faced a massive assault in what is dubbed as the knowledge era. It is time to return the dignity of science to the highest office in the US whose tremendous reverberations around the world are contagious.

Change on the horizon

It is not premature to safely anticipate a transition to ‘normalcy’ in the world, with direct implications for internationalisation – once the world captain of exclusionists is no more. The first significant impact emerges from, not just by way of policy, but a welcoming and receptive tone towards mobility of students, academics, researchers and a spirit of cooperation – a key aspect of internationalisation.

The implications of this new aura of internationalisation may have a direct as well indirect impact. In the global competition for ‘brain power’ and ‘financial interest’, which involve such mobile personnel, the healthy tone in the US may have implications on those prime destination countries.

The world has never witnessed such a calamitous disease as COVID-19 since the era of the Spanish flu, which killed millions around the world. This global pandemic of our era has yet again proven, beyond any doubt, that a deadly virus anywhere is a deadly virus everywhere.

The overlooking of this reality – undermined by unilateralist voices – needs to be fervently challenged in favour of a closer global cooperation and collaboration in research, innovation and prevention to overcome the present pandemic.

For that matter, this sense of collaboration and cooperation ought to be systematically extended to other key aspects of global challenges in climate change, poverty reduction, global warming and healthcare, among others. The critical role of universities in surmounting these challenges through robust collaboration and cooperation cannot be overemphasised.

According to CNN, the Biden-Harris presidency is poised to put into place a series of executive actions that would undo many of Trump’s foreign policies to return the US rapidly to its former status at the end of former president Barack Obama’s administration four years earlier. The executive actions include returning to the Paris Climate accord, restoring membership of the World Health Organization and repealing hostile travel bans.

High expectations

For sure, the legacy of the Trump administration needs to be undone. The global engagement and the exclusionist policies need to be scrapped – and reset. Expectations are high on the new Biden-Harris presidency as it concurrently confronts the escalating pandemic, economic crisis, and global diplomacy through the advancement of multilateral principles – of which internationalisation is a key component.

The need for multilateral engagements – on the principle of global solidarity – remains critical to meeting Sustainable Development Goals, as stipulated by the United Nations, and other major regional development agendas, such as Agenda 2063 of the African Union.

It may be time to dust up – and, even more so, polish – existing progressive development partnership principles, best practices and frameworks – such as the Accra Agenda for Action (2008) and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) – in all facets of academic collaboration, both at the systemic and operational levels.

It is paramount to reaffirm the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development of the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives which pledges to “affirm our strong political commitment to address the challenge of financing and creating an enabling environment at all levels for sustainable development in the spirit of global partnership and solidarity”.

Damtew Teferra is a professor of higher education in the University of KwaZulu-Natal's school of education, South Africa. He is the founding director of the International Network for Higher Education in Africa – Durban and Boston, the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of African Higher Education, and a visiting fellow, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, USA.