This article explores new nationalisms as part of the conflicting political interactions constituting the post-Cold war governance arrangements in higher education. Drawing on policy documents, archival sources and interviews and against the backdrop of a historical perspective on the university and the EU’s role as an education actor, the article investigates the development from internationalisation to national protectionism in Danish higher education policy. The article suggests that current practices concerning the nation-state are reshaping international collaboration and that these new nationalisms are characterised by post-Cold War readjustments and displacements in the relation between the university, the nation-state and international alliances.