The West’s Crisis of Academic Freedom
Across the West, politicians are increasingly condemning and attempting to restrict research in academic fields that challenge their own worldviews. The threat to academic freedom demands intellectual resistance, starting with an effort to develop a common understanding of the concept and why it matters.
VIENNA – A crisis of academic freedom is looming in Europe. Usually when academic freedom comes under fire in the West, people assume that it is a marginal issue, confined to countries like Hungary that have become increasingly authoritarian. But an honest reckoning would show that the problem is far more widespread than Europeans and Americans would like to admit.