Challenges of Internationalization of Higher Education: A Case Study of Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute, Tianjin University

The termination of the Georgia Tech Shenzhen Institute, Tianjin University joint venture underscores the challenges facing the internationalization of higher education amid current geopolitical tensions, technological competition, and the resurgence of Cold War binary logic. This research focuses on the connection between technology, geopolitics, combination-border knowledge transfer, and great power competition, especially between the United States and China. We examine how these factors affect the scenery of foreign academic cooperation using public policy models of strategic dual competition and the geopolitical-technical nexus. The concept of the Thucydides Trap is employed to comprehend potential conflicts between growing and established powers, which in recent foreign relations manifest as ideological confrontations. The globalization trilemma immediately reveals the challenge of balancing openness, policy autonomy, and global financial stability. The principles of internationalization and cultural exchange in higher education further illuminate the complexity and limitations of cross-cultural academic collaboration. In an increasingly fragmented global environment, this study aims to understand how these forces affect international higher education institution collaboration and explore ways to sustain higher education partnerships, promote cross-border knowledge exchange, and foster cross-cultural exchanges.