[Status: Drafting Process] by Ilham Akhsanu Ridlo

Introduction

Contemporary global academia exhibits a gravitational alignment with the United States, wherein American universities define benchmarks for institutional excellence, impose epistemological standards, shape research funding paradigms, and exert disproportionate influence through both soft power and structural channels over research agendas and knowledge dissemination. The phenomenon is most visible in the dominance of United States institutions in global rankings, their central role in determining funding allocations, and the entrenchment of Anglo-American publishing standards that shape the terms of scholarly visibility and legitimacy. This asymmetry, however, is not incidental nor a byproduct of mere institutional success; instead, it is a historically engineered configuration grounded in Cold War geopolitics, transnational educational policy, and neoliberal restructuring.

As former colonies restructured their higher education systems after independence, they often looked to U.S. models as blueprints for modernization, a move facilitated by U.S.-led development initiatives and cultural diplomacy programs that embedded specific academic norms abroad. Over time, this alignment produced deeply sedimented forms of epistemic dependency, whereby the valuation of knowledge, the organization of institutions, and the pathways to professional advancement came to mirror American standards. A nuanced interrogation of this dependency’s historical, geopolitical, and epistemological dimensions reveals how universities worldwide—especially in postcolonial and semi-peripheral contexts—have been drawn into systemic entanglements with U.S.-dominated academic architectures.

This inquiry requires an analysis of structural dynamics—such as funding structures, institutional rankings, and research metrics—and a critical engagement with the ideological and cultural processes through which U.S. academic dominance is rendered not merely functional but desirable. These include the global valorization of American degrees, the emulation of U.S. pedagogical practices, and the aspirational status conferred upon Anglo-American scholarly networks. Together, these forces normalize a singular model of academic success and perpetuate the internalization of U.S. academic supremacy across highly diverse educational systems and cultural contexts.

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Part 1. Cold War Hegemony and the Institutionalization of Epistemic Power

Part 2. The Ranking Industrial Complex and the Codification of Legitimacy

Part 3. Neoliberal Rationalities and the Globalization of Managerial Logics

Part 4. Asymmetric Research Ecologies and the Political Economy of Knowledge

Part 5. The Hegemony of Anglo-American Publishing and Epistemic Coloniality

Part 6. Systemic Effects of Structural Dependency

Part 7. Emerging: Envisioning a Pluriversal Academy

Part 8. Reclaiming Academic Sovereignty

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References