This paper will trace trends in cooperation and contestation in the higher education space, as a possible driver of wider change in the soft power of a nation. While countries in North America and Europe increasingly contend with the idea of knowledge societies, emerging countries such as China and India are found to be building their own capacities and staking claims for leadership in various ways. One of the important aspects of Chinese and Indian attempts towards developing an effective knowledge society for the holistic development of the two countries is to build a network of quality higher education Institutions through path breaking schemes and subsidiaries ultimately benefiting their Universities and Institutions to be globally benchmarked. This includes Chinese initiatives like Project 985, C-9 League and Project 211 (as well as programmes within the umbrella of Belt and Road) and Indian Initiatives like the Institutions of Eminence and Study in India to name a few. The paper also proposes to analyse the changing mind-set of the two Governments especially CPC in China towards the need of projecting its knowledge society at the global platform.
Given this scenario, the paper will outline patterns of change and continuity, hoping to stimulate a more dynamic debate on diverse notions of order articulated through processes of knowledge creation and dissemination.
The recent experience of Higher education and its internationalisation being no longer immune from systemic forces and developments in geopolitics and diplomacy, we will argue that the potential of education to shape and reshape the global order demands closer, longue duree investigation.