At least 30 universities across the U.S. have been threatened by the “Department of War” with a cut of federal funding to eliminate academic partnerships with foreign universities which the Pentagon considers a “national security risk.” In an August 17 Pentagon news release, Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer states, “The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security.” The news release argues that these academic partnerships must be reviewed to protect taxpayer-funded research from intellectual-property theft, technology transfers, and other possible exploitation by foreign rivals and adversaries.
China’s Global Times notes that Washington began restricting “dual use” technologies, but is now restricting normal scientific exchanges. U.S. universities have already become less desirable destinations for the world’s top talent, and this move by the Pentagon only adds to the problem. Instead of boosting the research ecosystem at U.S. universities, the Pentagon only adds to its academic decline. Global Times states, “Washington fears losing its long-held technological advantages, yet keeps building higher walls in the name of protecting it.”
Targeted universities reportedly include Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Cornell, University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, San Diego; Penn State University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Southern California; Duke University; and New York University, UCLA, Illinois Institute of Technology, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, University of Illinois, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, New York University, Stony Brook University, University of North Carolina, Oklahoma’s Northeastern State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Delaware, Emory University, and Drake University.
