Harvard in Turmoil

Campuses are hotbeds of protest, but it's nothing new. Nor is it as bad now as in the '60s and '70s

- JOSEPH S. NYE, JR.

Since the surprise October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, American universities have been embroiled in campus protests as well as questions about what limits—if any—on free speech are appropriate at private institutions, what constitutes harassment (which is protected against at universities by Title VI) and more. Historically, college students tend toward activism, but over the past three months, Harvard and the responses by its newly inaugurated president, Claudine Gay, were particular flashpoints, with highly publicized events including an October 8 letter by 34 student groups blaming Israel for the attack the prior day, frequent pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents on campus. After initially weathering a contentious Congressional hearing on antisemitism, President Gay resigned on January 2 following plagiarism charges. Reflecting on the differences between the protests of today and those of the Vietnam War era, Harvard professor emeritus Joseph S. Nye, Jr., puts the events on the campus into context in the current situation in an adapted excerpt from his new memoir, a life in the american century (Polity Books). Nye is an international relations expert and a former Kennedy School dean. He also worked in the State Department, Pentagon and intelligence community during the Carter and Clinton administrations.