The recent announcement of the Association of Asian Studies’ decision to relocate its Asian conference from Hong Kong to Kobe, Japan, due to the political situation in Hong Kong is a poignant reminder that institutions of higher education and research are not immune to geopolitical developments in East Asia. The underpinning institutions and arrangements of the US-led international liberal order are seen to be weakening, if not in retreat, not least because of President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy but because the economies of the countries in this order have not fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis, leaving a void in its wake for China to fill. In Southeast Asia, the effects of China’s growing influence are especially difficult to ignore, where most states are still in a developmental phase, both politically and economically. In such a fluid situation, the status of institutions of higher education as a bastion of free-thinking, innovative scholarship, and liberal values will be tested in the coming years and decades while governments in pursuit of nation-state consolidation turn to authoritarian rule and policies driven by tribal nationalism.
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