This edited volume introduces readers to the relationship between higher education and transnational politics. It aims to show how higher education is a significant arena for domestic political struggles as well as regional and international transformation. Our starting point is that the political science literature on globalisation and inter-state relations largely neglects the study of higher education and its role in polity transformation.

Introduction: the Transnational Politics of Global Higher Education Meng-Hsuan Chou, Isaac A Kamola, and Tamson Pietsch 2 Between the local and the universal: academic worlds and the long history of the university Tamson Pietsch 3 Situating `The Global University¿ in South Africa Isaac A Kamola 4 The political economy of international higher education and the academic labour in the Persian Gulf Neema Noori 5 `We come in peace¿: ideology and higher education policy in Latin America J. Salvador Peralta and Thiago Pezzuto Pacheco 6 Contestation over integration and autonomy of universities in the former Yugoslavia: how global and European ideas are used in domestic politics Martina Vukasovic 7 Human-capital strategies to build world-class research universities in Asia: impact on global flows Anju Mary Paul and Victoria Long 8 Administrators and the free movement of researchers in Europe Meng-Hsuan Chou 9 Global University Rankings and Transnational Politics of Higher Education Tero Erkkilä