National Security and Academic Freedom: How American Universities Navigate Great Power Competition
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- How do American universities navigate the tension between national security and academic freedom that arises during periods of great power competition? To answer this question, I examine two time periods when intense rivalry between the US and its rival country drove the American government to scrutinize universities: from 1947 to 1957, which encapsulates the Second Red Scare, and from 2013 to present day, which covers US-China great power competition. Across these two case studies, I find reoccurring patterns in the threat perceptions and mitigating strategies of the US government, university administrators, and professors. US government officials express concerns that foreign rivals are taking advantage of the openness of American universities to steal research and to brainwash students. These threat perceptions have led the government to investigate faculty accused of ties to foreign rivals, create new laws and policies, and publicly communicate to university administrators to try and mitigate these concerns. Much of these government strategies achieve success by pressuring administrators into complying with the government’s goals or by deterring faculty from carrying out certain actions. Some university administrators and faculty, meanwhile, argue that the government’s increased involvement threatens the core values of their institutions, especially academic freedom. A few have publicly expressed these concerns in attempts to pressure the government to limit its policies. Many university administrators, however, choose to cooperate with the government to protect their funding or because they agree with the government’s perspective. To protect themselves, many faculty members also limit their behavior and censor their studies. These trends indicate that balancing national security and academic freedom represents a difficult issue, one for which the US government, university administrators, and faculty have failed to reach a satisfactory solution. Modern developments in dual use technology and globalization only exacerbate this tension. This thesis hopes to inspire greater communication between policymakers, university administrators, and university faculty so all sides understand one another’s concerns.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date modified | December 5, 2022 |
| Publication date | June 2, 2022; June 2, 2022 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Morello, Olivia |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor | Stearns, Dr. Tim |
| Thesis advisor | Vardi, Dr. Gil-li |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University |
| Department | Center for International Security and Cooperation |
Subjects
| Subject | research security |
|---|---|
| Subject | academic freedom |
| Subject | China |
| Subject | Second Red Scare |
| Subject | university |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Morello, O. (2022). National Security and Academic Freedom: How American Universities Navigate Great Power Competition. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/cf149ht2223
Collection
Stanford University, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Interschool Honors Program in International Security Studies, Theses
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- Contact
- olivia2295@gmail.com
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