Every semester, Fairfield University sends hundreds of students abroad to study in foreign countries. Fairfield University’s strong study abroad program is a hallmark of the school’s culture. More importantly, however, it is a service to American diplomacy.
The diplomatic nature of study abroad is more overt with programs such as Fulbright and the Rhodes Scholarship, but it’s true of every American student who studies in a foreign country. Think of it like the Chinese government sending pandas to foreign zoos. Through their hard work, intelligence and hopefully their charm, American students do as much work advertising the United States as Hollywood, pop stars and football exhibition games in London and Dublin. Every friendship a study abroad student forges is another link between us and our allies. American students are our pandas.
Always, this soft diplomacy was predicated on the fact that our relationship with the rest of the West was amicable or even warm, as was the case for the last 80 years. This is no longer the case.
In the past month, the Trump administration has made explicit what many observers have been slowly coming to realize since he took office: the United States is no longer an ally. We have instituted tariffs and begun trade wars. We have orchestrated extrajudicial kidnappings and destroyed foreign vessels. We have threatened, cajoled and blustered. We have supported far-right parties like Germany’s AfD, whose stated goal is the dissolution of the European Union. We have betrayed and insulted Ukraine. We have theoretically put America first, at the detriment of an alliance that has stabilized the globe since 1945.
For the first time in memory, Fairfield students may be arriving in foreign countries that do not want them there. Sure, President Trump has backpeddled on his threats about Greenland, but that’s this week. Who knows what next week will bring? At the very least, the Trump administration’s intent to weaken and potentially destroy the EU has never wavered. Vice President Vance’s 2025 Munich speech made that intent explicit, and President Trump doubled down during his speech in Davos, Switzerland, at the 2026 World Economic Forum Meeting. NATO is an alliance on paper, but after a year, allied leaders have finally realized that paper will do little to stop President Trump from making his whims a reality. Take Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Davos speech as proof of that. Quoting Thucydides, Carney said, “It seems every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules-based order is fading, that the strong do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.”
Study abroad can and should be fun, but make no mistake, it has always been a responsibility. Faced with a world that no longer believes in American goodness, Fairfield students, like all American students, have a still greater responsibility than ever. We must go above and beyond to prove, without a doubt, that the American people are good despite our government. In the words of Prime Minister Carney, “We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.” There may very well be no stopping what is coming. Nevertheless, it is up to Fairfield students to give it a try.
A pity we can’t use pandas.