ABSTRACT
Globalization buoyed the internationalization agenda in higher education for 25 years. To senior international officers (SIOs), Thomas Friedman seemed to make a compelling case for the inevitability of globalization, including a whole new language for the dawning era. International educators were going to use the ever-expanding Internet to build new partnerships, both local and global. Many SIOs looked beyond the cultural imperialism and commercialization that was implied in much of this thinking. Moreover, Friedman’s not-so-veiled threat that advancing globalization would result in a growing inequality from the destruction of traditional sectors of economies worldwide was put aside. In the US context, for example, it is probably true that advocates of international education have always faced skeptics. According to Madeleine Green, Senior Fellow at the International Association of Universities and former vice president for International Initiatives at the American Council on Education, the election of Donald Trump has “opened the floodgates” to those who question the value of international education itself.
