The recent controversy over antisemitism on U.S. campuses highlights the role U.S. universities play in maintaining the country’s global status. More than material resources, like state-of-the-art classrooms, it is the campus culture of open inquiry and expression that enables U.S. universities to serve as sources of soft power.
One year ago, Brazil experienced what looked its own version of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Insurrection in Washington. Since then, though, the two countries, whose political dramas had momentarily converged, moved in completely different directions. Today, Brazilian democracy appears to have stabilized. American democracy has not.