The Pentagon ordered 30 U.S. universities to audit their partnerships with foreign institutions and end problematic ties within two weeks or risk losing funding. The schools were told to review mostly Chinese university and military training links under a Monday order.
The list includes Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University, a U.S. official said. The Pentagon also released an updated list of 130 foreign institutions last month, saying they engaged in activities that increase the likelihood of U.S. government-funded research and development efforts being misappropriated.
Emil Michael and the Pentagon order
Emil Michael, the Pentagon chief technology officer, said in a news release: “The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security.” The order gives the schools two weeks to complete the review and terminate arrangements the Pentagon deems problematic, a deadline that leaves no room for a long internal process. A separate Pentagon account of broader security concerns has already been laid out in Pentagon Says 757 Wounded In Action Since February — Wounded In Action, which shows how the department has been public about national security costs in other areas as well.
The updated foreign list also included several Iranian and Russian institutions. The first version of that list was developed during Trump’s first term, and the current order follows that framework while moving from foreign institutions to the U.S. schools that partnered with them.
Sarah Spreitzer on research security
Sarah Spreitzer, vice president at the American Council on Education, said, “We don’t appreciate the implication that we are not good partners on research security, given that we helped create this list, and given that we’ve always partnered with the federal government when there has been national security concerns.” She also said most member institutions moved away from research partnerships with the listed institutions in the years that followed the creation of the original list. That leaves the present order focused less on new disclosure and more on whether schools can document what remains in place.
The Pentagon’s stated concern is national security; Spreitzer’s objection is that the announcement suggests wrongdoing without evidence. The practical test for the 30 universities is narrower: identify the ties that match the list, cut the ones the Pentagon treats as problematic, and do it before the two-week window closes. An earlier federal security fight involving research funding has also drawn attention in Trump South Korea drills cut in Pentagon order, says Trump, another example of how Pentagon decisions can quickly affect university and research arrangements.
Harvard University and foreign scrutiny
The story also comes amid a Justice Department investigation into whether Harvard University is allowing Chinese donors to create scholarships that exclude American students. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy said the country opposes what it described as the politicization of “normal scientific, educational, and academic exchanges.” The spokesperson also referred to “The U.S. side” and said it should “abandon the Cold War mentality and foster an” approach to the exchanges. Another federal oversight fight involving the Pentagon has been tracked in Richard Blumenthal Presses Pentagon Over USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft Carriers.
For the schools named in the order, the immediate step is internal review, not public debate. The Pentagon has set the deadline and the funding risk, and the universities now have to decide which partnerships they can document, defend or end within the two weeks they were given.
