Regionalization of higher education and geopolitics in Northeast Asia11This article is based on Byun and Um (2012). However, many parts of this article were updated and rewritten mainly by Bawool Hong in order to reflect the developments since 2012, when the manuscript was originally published

This article examines the relationship among three Northeast Asian countries (China, Japan, South Korea), in terms of intra-regional collaboration and exchange in higher education. It highlights how geopolitical conflicts have continuously posed barriers to a more substantial regionalization of higher education, despite continuous efforts since the early 2000s. Rekindled historical conflicts, lack of regional leadership, lingering US influence and ultimately the outbreak of COVID-19 have further exacerbated uncertainty for regionalization of higher education in Northeast Asia. Collaborative efforts among the three countries to ease age-old geopolitical tensions, will be a prerequisite to achieving more substantial higher education regionalization in Northeast Asia.