Judd Devermont & Aubrey Hruby, Columnists

Trump Student Visa Plan Will Hurt Africa — and the U.S.

Educating the continent’s future leaders has been a secret weapon in the fight for geopolitical power

As the U.S. shuts the door to more African students, China is laying out the welcome mat

Photographer: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images 

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Against a backdrop of rising tensions with the Soviets in 1959, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech in New York that presented a new strategic approach toward African nations and U.S. global leadership in a world defined by great-power competition.

“Opening our universities and college doors to several times as many African students as now come over — this would be an investment which would be repaid to this country many times over in increased goodwill, trade and national security.”