Impact of Harvard ban on US 'soft power' and students

THE Trump administration's attempt to block Harvard University, with its global reputation for academic excellence, from enrolling international students adds to a growing list of measures that risk severely undercutting American “soft power”.

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A federal judge has placed a temporary hold on the Harvard ban.

But the president's move was just part of a wider ideological battle he has waged against dozens of long-established programmes designed to promote diversity and cooperation at home and abroad - and to expand US influence in the process.

Trump has ordered deep cuts in foreign aid, cancelled or seriously scaled back university research programmes ~ raising fears of a brain drain as top academics seek work abroad - and launched attacks on media, including by silencing the historic Voice of America.

Then in early May, Trump threatened a 100% tariff on movies shown in the US but produced abroad.

That would have, for instance, a devastating impact on films like Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, the biggest-budget American movie being shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It was filmed largely in Britain and South Africa.