Around Academia: The de-globalization of American higher education?

Dan Drezner responds to a Boston Globe article on the retrenchment many US universities are going through after greatly expanding their international presences over the last few decades:

...The logic of expanding overseas because of "prestige, planting the flag overseas, a presidential feeling that they needed to be doing adventurous things" is a depressing data point about the ways in the academy can be slaves to intellectual and business trends...

IRCPPS in the Links: LSE Produces Twitter Guide for Academics

via Dan Drezner:

How can Twitter, which limits users to 140 characters per tweet, have any relevance to universities and academia, where journal articles are between 3,000-8,000 words long? Can anything of academic value ever be said in just 140 characters? 

A new Twitter guide published by the LSE Public Policy Group seeks to answer this question, and show academics and researchers how to get the most out of the micro-blogging site. The Guide is designed to lead the novice through the basics of Twitter but also provide tips on how it can aid the teaching and research of the more experienced academic tweeter. 

Suggestions for tweeting academics include, adopting different styles – from 'substantive' to 'conversational' – to match the content and intended audience; crowd-sourcing research activities, such as getting followers to gather information or analyse data, and setting up different feeds to provide targeted guidance and feedback for each taught class.

IRCPPS in the Links: The Chinese Leadership Transition's Implication for Chinese Foreign Policy

Dan Drezner responds to a National Interest piece by Bruce Gilley:

[Gilley writes,] "It may be time to concede that China’s leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, is not the moderate that many have assumed. Indeed, evidence from his past suggests that Xi is going to steer China in a more aggressive direction, both domestically and internationally..."

...Gilley's hypothesis is certainly plausible, but can I suggest an alternative?  China is in the middle of a leadership transition -- and when politicians are trying to move on up but ain't there yet, they often have the freedom to make all kinds of crazy, out-there, irresponsible foreign policy statements secure in the knowledge that foreign policy statements are not all that binding once politicians assume power . 

IRCPPS in the Links: Dan Drezner on Networked Political Movements

via Drezner's blog:

...unless the people in these movements actually vote in elections, then their agenda will be thwarted in the long run. Even if these kinds of networked movements are new, the political imperative to get elected and re-elected is not...

...For foreign policymakers, the here and now is what matters. What I want to see is whether these movements can sustain themselves over time. For international relations theorists, the persistence of trends matters too.