Weapons of War: Higher Ed
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Audio Recording by George Hahn
Growing up, our biggest fear was “the bomb.” Dr. Strangelove came out the year I was born. Not to worry though, see a bright flash … just duck and cover. Yep, your desk will so shield you from a thermonuclear blast. This week, I interviewed historian Niall Ferguson. He believes we’re several years into a second Cold War. Fellow geopolitical gangster Fareed Zakaria calls it a Cold Peace. Regardless, there’s definitely a cold front moving in, but you wouldn’t know it looking at America. Our minds are elsewhere, and our guard is down.
War and Innovation
Nothing focuses one’s attention like the threat of imminent death. The first guy to use a sling to hurl a rock at his enemy was an innovator. The people who forged swords and shields from a copper-tin alloy spawned the Bronze Age. The U.S. Civil War saw the arrival of hot air balloons for aerial reconnaissance, the first organized army ambulance corp, the mass adoption of railroads, the telegraph, and photojournalism. The dividends from World War I included stainless steel, zippers, and daylight savings (hard pass). Just one madman invading Europe in the middle of the last century brought us flu vaccines, mass adoption of penicillin, blood plasma transfusions, radar, computers, and countless other products. If it wasn’t for a Cold War-era Darpa project that laid the foundation for the commercial internet, No Mercy / No Malice would arrive via post. The 20th century was defined by the symbiotic relationship between conflict and progress.
Conflict and progress will also likely define the 21st century. Veterans of Israel’s Unit 8200 have founded scores of startups, including Palo Alto Networks, Waze, and Wiz. Combat in Iraq and Afghanistan contributed to significant medical advances, particularly the use of robotic prosthetics, and deepened our understanding of traumatic brain injuries. Facing a more powerful enemy, Ukrainians are developing long-range drones that cost $30,000 a piece (a fraction of the price tag for a cruise missile) to strike targets hundreds of miles inside Russia. On the battlefield, Russia and Ukraine are locked in an innovation race to produce tactical drones that start at $500. Prediction: By the time that war ends, delivery drones will be commonplace, and the best will come from Ukraine.
Hybrid Warfare
In a global economy, every point of connection is an axis of attack. Hybrid warfare is a conflict cocktail that blends conventional military operations, cyber, disinformation, guerilla tactics, lawfare, diplomacy, regime change, and economic warfare. Vladimir Putin is a seventh-level hybrid warfare wizard. He has covertly poured state resources into high- and low-tech means to pit Americans and Europeans against each other. Just as Big Tech realized the greatest ROI was misinformation from likable executives — “We’re proud of the progress we’ve made” — propaganda continues to be how nations punch above their kinetic weight class.
Radio Free Europe
The U.S. practices hybrid warfare, too. Radio Free Europe wrapped propaganda in rock & roll and pumped it into the Eastern Bloc. We spend $500 million a year so the Peace Corps can flex America’s soft power muscles. U.S. and Israeli computer scientists created Stuxnet, a virus that sabotaged the centrifuges at Iran’s nuclear facility without firing a shot. And despite spending $820 billion a year on kinetic power, our primary weapon of choice is economic. We lead the world in sanctions — it isn’t even close.
Unguarded
TikTok, owned by ByteDance, is a Trojan horse that enables the Chinese Communist Party to construct the frame through which American youth see the world, the U.S., and themselves. It’s not about whether the CCP strives to diminish U.S. standing and prosperity (they do), but if we should make it this easy for them. The U.S. government is slowly waking up to the TikTok threat. When it comes to communications platforms of declining influence — television and radio — U.S. law restricts foreign ownership. (Note: Rupert Murdoch bypassed this law by becoming a U.S. citizen.)
Investments affecting national security, energy, and infrastructure also face scrutiny. It’s a dumb idea to give your adversaries the ability to control your weapons systems, turn off the power grid, or close your ports. And it’s plain stupid to let them implant a neural jack into the wet matter of our youth. (See above: TikTok.)
American universities, however, are undefended — they are open for business. In 2019 fewer than 3% of 3,700 higher education institutions complied with a law requiring them to report foreign gifts or contracts exceeding $250,000. The following year an Education Department report concluded, “U.S. institutions are technological treasure troves where leading and internationally competitive fields, such as nanoscience, are booming. For too long, these institutions have provided an unprecedented level of access to foreign governments and their instrumentalities in an environment lacking transparency and oversight.” A subsequent crackdown has called into question foreign money at Harvard, Yale, MIT, and other schools. But Woodward and Bernstein, the Deadpool and Wolverine of journalism, didn’t just follow the money, they identified its source.
China
High tariffs keep Florida oranges out of the Chinese market. But contracts worth $1.8 million give Chinese growers access to University of Florida citrus research. One Florida grower called the deal an “intellectual property grab.” The University of Michigan has around $1 million in contracts from DiDi Global, a Chinese ride-sharing company built on government money that forced Uber out of their market. When a Chinese equipment maker filed an IPO, it told investors that its connection to the University of Minnesota allowed it to “enjoy the latest achievements of world-class R&D institutions.” Why worry about IP theft, when IP can be purchased at a deep discount on campus?
Saudi Arabia
Sixty-two U.S. universities receive billions from Saudi Arabia. In exchange, the Saudis get access to America’s top minds, but they also get a brand makeover. The Kingdom has made similar investments in sports and startups, including in Premier League football, the PGA, and WeWork. This is, in my view, a market transaction that’s good for both parties, as American firms get access to cheap capital. However, there’s something uncomfortable about a monarchy that doesn’t share our values having influence over the universities that, arguably, shape the values of tomorrow’s business and government leaders.
A former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia likened the Kingdom’s “higher-ed-washing” campaign to U.S. soft power. True, it’s the same tactic, but there’s no moral equivalency. When the Saudis buy brand makeovers from American universities, there is also a risk that the curriculum and professorships will question, in the most civilized manner, our American values.
Qatar
Since 1998, Qatar has spent billions funding satellites of U.S. universities in Doha. “Education City” is home to campuses for Georgetown’s school for politics and foreign relations, Carnegie Mellon’s computer science department, Virginia Commonwealth’s fine arts department, Cornell’s medical school, and Northwestern’s journalism school. Texas A&M has an engineering school in Qatar, though it’s set to close in 2028. Why? School officials say they’re concerned about stability in the Middle East. Meanwhile, a think tank known as the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy alleged that Qatar had “substantial ownership” of weapons development rights and nuclear engineering research being developed at the Texas A&M campus. Texas A&M denies the allegation.
Nations form alliances and partnerships based on shared interests, not altruism or friendship. This is the reality of geopolitics and our relationship with Qatar — it’s got an awful human rights record and ties to Hamas and Iran, but it’s also home to the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. It’s complicated.
American foreign policy needs Qatar; American universities don’t. Elite schools enjoy endowments worth billions and charge students roughly the equivalent of a luxury car for every year of tuition — they might miss Qatar’s money, but they don’t need it.
Patriotism
Nearly 300 UCLA graduates gave their lives during World War II. My alma mater isn’t unique. U.S. colleges coast to coast mobilized for war. Every school sent graduates to the front lines. The University of Maryland graduated students in three years to boost enlistment. Columbia University changed its curriculum to serve the war effort. By 1942 as many as 3,000 armed forces personnel were taking classes at Harvard. And, of course, America’s research universities provided the intellectual firepower, including the atomic bomb, that won the war. The Greatest Generation displayed a sense of duty and patriotism that we applaud today as exemplary. Their love of America helped them save America.
We’re less patriotic today, especially young Americans. That should be a clear and present danger to university administrators and faculty as autocrats threaten democracy in the U.S. and around the world. We armed the Greatest Generation with patriotism; we’re disarming today’s students with narcissism.
Tip of the Spear
Universities are the tip of the spear for America, shaping the next generation of leaders and innovators. Our purpose is to provide an environment where students can explore their passions, challenge their beliefs, and develop critical thinking skills. Trashing America might earn students and faculty clout online, but in the real world it’s stupid. (UC Berkeley Professor Carlo Cippolla identified “stupid” as people who hurt others while hurting themselves.) We’re on the road to stupid, and it’s paved with money from our adversaries.
Americans’ superpower is our optimism. However, the Achilles’ heel of this optimism is that it’s easier to fool Americans than convince them they’ve been fooled. This, coupled with money-obsessed, bloated universities have turned American values of intellectual freedom and free speech on itself. Cancer is when the host’s own cells turn on it, and America’s cancer is the coarsening of our discourse and the emergence of a white-hot fashion among university youth — hating America. Is the $14 billion that has poured into American universities an attempt to build bridges between us and other nations, or is it a long game being played by our adversaries to turn our cells (youth) against us? The answer is yes.
Is there a point where the risks outweigh the upside? As someone who’s given money to universities, I know that, no matter how benign, the donor expects something in return (e.g., influence over curriculum, who receives financial aid, faculty hires).
Campus leaders need to ask a simple question: What do foreign nations want in return for their billions, and what are they getting?
Life is so rich,
P.S. This week on Prof G Markets, Mark Mahaney, senior managing director and head of internet research at Evercore, joined me and Ed to discuss why the market’s freakout is an opportunity, not a crisis. Listen here on Spotify or here on Apple Podcasts.
P.P.S. Section released new research: The AI Proficiency Report. It finds that only 7% of people are really good at using AI — the rest of us need to catch up. Download here.
In other posts, we’ve already established the deleterious impacts of money – on everything!
For those of you asking Scott to give up on political commentary – you can’t be serious! Business is politics and politics is business – locally, nationally, globally, ecclesiastically . . .
As we’ve already established, when the mission shifts from “THE MISSION” to money, all is eventually lost. Until the importance of money declines, things will be tough for the vast majority of us!
See there, you can do it! That was an objective and well informed post – bravo. It is amazing what happens when you leave your politics at the door and don’t abuse your bully pulpit. BTW your leftist lovers are the American hating youth you mention above, not the mainline conservatives but I digress.
Bravo. YOu are back on thehorse again. YOu are pointing out the issues that are ignored as we are consumed in a storm of misinformation, celebrity worship and white supremacy. Trump supporters have vague reasons why a convicted sexual assaulted, fraudster and con man has taken over the Republican party. Everyone should know he cares about few people yet military voters swear by him as he calls them “suckers and losers”. Even undocumented Mexican immigrants support him because he is a ” nationalist” or whatever that guy meant. that guy is who Trump wants to keep out yet he would vote for him if he could. Again, bravo.
I’ve just had a really bad moment that an unethical hypnotherapist contributed to.
Considering that President Biden had a nasty brush with psychologists himself, would it be possible for him to stop all psychological drilling into people’s brains immediately by executive order? Liquidating the income and assets of all psychologists and hypnotherapists for a reparations fund would be good, too, but the immediate injunction would be most appreciated.
I hope he’d find it a kind of justice when a lot of psychologists were eager to diagnose him without him choosing to be a patient of any psychologist.
Since I’ve had this situation from the unethical hypnotherapist, I can say I’ve been treated like the president. I can’t say that I’ve liked it, though.
Thankfully the Biden Government has done what it can to take down Murdoch, Trump’s supporter for the January 6th attempted overthrow of the US election. The UK has re-opened its investigation into the phone hacking scandal that went on some years ago. Murdoch’s New Limited is on its last legs in Australia, forced to sell its cable TV network and downsize staff in its other media.
And, of course, America’s research universities provided the intellectual firepower, including the atomic bomb, that won the war.
You do know that the same bombs killed 250,000 people instantly, hideously, painfully. That millions more died prematurely of leukemia and other cancers.
Prof, Your carefully contrived sardonic/laconic tone of voice is usually amusing, but here, UGGHH!!
ProfG et al… long time listener, first time caller. The most powerful words in the english language: have a point of view. Your POV is a great energy to help us challenge and sometimes evolve our own. Thank you for that.
On the topic of ByteDance and T/T. Do you think it goes even deeper and somewhat more sinister: the combination of T/T, Temu, and the likes of Shein go for the jugular of good ol’ USofA’s economy. Control the data, the sales, the repeat sales… longer term, you control a generation of american consumers, and their green backs (or green bits and bytes?). sure algorithms and black holes of sorrow and anxiety are a real peril (thank you Mr J Haidt and Mr T Harris). what is the impact of weaponizing data and algos coupled with owning a generation of consumers and their $$$? that’s sofa king scary… thank you and please keep pushing us!
Yes, look at how much advertising Temu is buying on Google. Temu is now my go to when I cannot find stuff in my usual online places. Good to see Amazon have a competitor.
Bytedance will not sell TikTok. The world tends to ignore the US when it says something is a security issue because it has been over used too many times in the past. Yes, Scott I totally agree with you regarding what you say about TikTok. Interesting that Venezuela’s government has blocked social media, including X, so that it cannot cause riots. The US has technologies that are being used to do what you say TikTok will/can do.
Elon Musk has just realised that using X to cause riots in a country, such as the UK, is going to hurt Tesla sales. A large German company has announced they will no longer buy Telsa cars. And you are right regarding how many people have left X.
Over half of the world’s population is living under some type of US sanctions. Now mBridge’s global money transfer system is past the testing phase, it can be used by countries being sanctioned, so they can bypass SWIFT and the US dollar. It had to happen.
These are examples I would lime to hear.ProfG expand on at length. They.combjne with the undermining of the higher ed structure. I listen to him give wound up on the structure of post high school education. It is a series of realities that blend into a topic that needs a person that can get the spotlight to bring g the topic to Congress and the public.
Thanks for the article . Can you please share the data that support the statement “Cancer is…the emergence of a white-hot fashion among university youth — hating America.” Thank you! Jon
Excellent and coincidental , as I struggled this morning with how to approach my daughter’s curriculum for her 11th grade history class. I read the syllabus and the main books are Lies my teacher told me and Howard Zinn’s youth edition. I have read both and while I am for a more transparent teaching of our very complicated history, my main question is how will this be balanced? How do you provide perspective that still fosters patriotism? The lack of a common prideful identity and love of country among our youth provided through our educational systems, is of great concern to me. My daughter doesn’t get another country. It’s getting old. I don’t trust myself asking the teacher questions without getting angry. The whole we are a terrible country, capitalism bad, down with the west is getting so old.
As the great Christopher Hitchens warned time and time again, “the Barbarians never take a city until someone holds the gates open for them.” The gates have been opened.
Love the read! Great write.
“We armed the Greatest Generation with patriotism; we’re disarming today’s students with narcissism.”
If you know you know.
I used to photograph college yearbooks up the East Coast, including NYU. At certain schools i could shoot literally for hours and only see Chinese students. They were all studying engineering, management, supply chain, economics, sciences, etc. I think Colleges like students who pay retail. ” Money always wins”.
An undergrad econ professor at UCLA (Go Bruins) would constantly tell us, “FOLLOW THE MONEY” if you want the truth. Still the most important thing I learned in that class.
When have we had a war that we won? WWII. What are young people supposed to think, fight for
something that amounts to nothing but getting young people killed and corporation, congressmen and defense companies rich. The great American congressman’s war cry, you go.
Sun Tzu, _The Art of War_ “The supreme art of war is to subdue an enemy without fighting.” And that’s exactly what’s being done to the US.
Dissent isn’t disloyalty. Why would your youth favour a system that, by your own admission, is screwing them? Maybe just maybe the young have a right to be pissed.
Very good point. The rich havent shown a real interest in “the people” except for taking advantage of them. Perhaps one day we will learn that our greed will be our downfall.
dead on the money……
Definitely not one of your better posts. Though you ae probably sincere, this reads more like propaganda than unbiased ,objective pursuit of common good.
Scott- if you’d like to put some money where your mouth is, you should invest in MITS Lightning Fund. We invest in Ukraine’s domestic defense industry. We make those drones you referred to. And their guidance systems. And their motors. At the very least you should interview me on why the US won’t give $1 to a Ukrainian Defense company and why no US bank will bank them.
Perry,
Maybe Scott will have a chat with you. In the meantime perhaps you’d like to share here your points raised in your post. I’m very interested!
“TikTok, owned by ByteDance, is a Trojan horse that enables the Chinese Communist Party to construct the frame through which American youth see the world, the U.S., and themselves.”
C’mon, man. Who’s broadcasting the party line here? But, I guess it’s fundraising season in the Hamptons, and you love the parties.
I recall hearing that jazz was also part of RFE broadcasts.
Back on point, yes, it might be a problem that China is getting more use out of our tech developments than we are.
Great Post, as always! I have one small counterpoint. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries may have another goal that is in our interest, too. They are embarking on a very difficult and lengthy transition from an oil-based economy to “something else.” It would be better for us and the rest of the world if the Arab economies were more diverse and consumer-oriented.
Excellent points. I think your are spot on. Canada (my home country) has similar issues with foreign investment in both Universities and corporate ownership and has only recently been fully waking up to the threat. There was this complacent belief that these foreign actors were benign and simply wanted to invest. I always believed that was naive. It’s no mistake that massive troves of technology developed in Canada by Northern Telecom in the 80s ended up in China. I did notice that we made the list of countries investing in American universities (6th, just behind the Saudis). I hope to god that we’re never called for having anything but mutually beneficial intentions.
I still can’t figure out what solution to any of these issues you are espousing?
Great Post! TikTok is the worst! Nothing good comes out of it! It’s a waste of time and kids get stuck watching what others are doing rather than creating their own vision of what they want for their life and going after it! In terms of education, I hope universities like Jordan Peterson’s academy can add some competition to the education landscape and provide an alternate pathway that is cheaper and that employers will recognize and value.
Post WWII, the US government’s shift in spending policy led to substantial NSF funding for both research and graduate students at universities. This fueled a surge in PhD production, which in turn drove growth in patenting, licensing, and startup formation. Consequently, a culture of innovation emerged at some universities, as these institutions became hubs for groundbreaking research. However, this success also ignited an intense arms race among universities to attract and retain top talent.
As government funding dwindles and grants become increasingly competitive and politicized, universities heavily invested in research face growing pressure. To maintain their competitive edge and fight to attract the next generation of scientific stars, alternative funding sources such as private donations and industry partnerships. Elite institutions like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Caltech exemplify this trend. Their pursuit of excellence is not solely driven by domestic competition but also by the global landscape, where countries like Saudi Arabia are making enormous investments in research and higher education and are looking/paying for partners to help.
Universities (at least the elite ones) are in a major (now global) arms race for funding and discovery.
FYI: the US Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain,. not Qatar.
Spot on! It doesn’t just apply to kids. So many of my adult friends, our age, know next to nothing about Ukraine, Iran, China, yet they know about all of the nonsense on TikTok. Sad state of affairs. I’m worried about our country. You were correct in giving credit to the axes of evil in playing 5D chess with the American mind. I’ve always appreciated your views on the games being played with our educational system. We need a reset.
Hear, hear!
Scott,
You mention Israel but forget to mention the foreign influence and mind virus they have infected the majority of our elected representatives with, shower politicians with enough money and they can’t see a genocide, even as the UN and dozens of other countries try to help them see. And don’t forget the nature of the innovations coming out of the, let’s not call it war because it isn’t. genocide they are committing in Palestine. I mean, hot steel projectiles repeatedly thrust into innocent people’s anus’s until they die is real innovation.
Israel is as much America’s friend as China is. One day you will lose the blinders.
Well said. Scott is using Olympics-level mental gymastics to justify a genocide of Palestinians. Let me see if I have this right:
The students and others (which includes people of all ages & many Jewish people) who are protesting this horror have been brainwashed because of TikTok and NYU Abu Dhabi. It has nothing to do with the U.S. government sending billions upon billions of dollars to fund bombs dropping on refugees in tents for the last 300+ days. The images I am seeing coming out of Gaza of headless babies and children with missing limbs and screaming parents must be AI.
Nice try, Professor.
I’m not sure I see what’s wrong with spreading American IP and innovation around the world. If you start with a zero-sum, great power competitive baseline, of course having China spend money to get IP on orange breeding is bad for America.
But in the real world, where innovation lifts all boats, do we really care? I worry about TikTok, and I worry about the communist party policing what Chinese nationals do and say on US campuses, and I worry about China censoring Hollywood movies to give them access to their domestic market. However, I can’t say I worry about licensing of technology or sponsoring professors.
Is China really buying influence with professors that spread anti-American ideals? I kind of doubt it… In my experience, professors want to do science and spread it to anyone who will listen regardless of who pays the bills.
Higher ed is important, but you can’t go to college if you can’t read or do math. The US is ranked last in adult numeracy of all OECD countries, and only a third of adults are reading fluently. Prof G, please listen to the podcast “Sold a Story,” and you will understand why. Interview Emily Hanford and she will explain it to you. The US spends billions on reading instruction programs that rewire (i.e. causing brain damage) students’ brains (k-3) in a manner that ensures they won’t learn to read. Why because the companies doing it are making billions and the people running education programs are either corrupt or illiterate in cognitive science. You can get a Ph.D. in education from Harvard having never taken a course in memory or the neurology of reading or cognition. Long before college, you win lose or draw in K-3.
I know a student at Stanford right now who is hating her experience. She pictured A Secret History like environment—an atmosphere of deep intellectualism, late-night (maybe misguided) philosophy debated, sipping beers slow and pretension. Instead, it’s all outward. No one reads (unless it’s a substack about their industry.) They’re gaming out who has the parents they need to meet. It’s all ambition, no depth. The bloated expense has resulted in this. No one can go to school and become deeper, or more human. It’s too expensive for that. ROI has to be there. What do we end up with? I think it’s scary.
My college experience has been largely the same. I fantasized about a deeply intellectual experience only to be surrounded by a swarm of individuals with no passion, drive, or yearn for more. College is dying.