Dhaka, Dec. 12 -- We have become so accustomed to aspiring autocrats attacking universities that we hardly ever stop to ask why. But pushing back against authoritarians requires understanding their motivations and strategies. University leaders, in particular, ought to be better prepared to coordinate resistance across institutions of higher education, and to ensure internal cohesion among faculty. Otherwise, autocrats may succeed in playing different parts of academia off against one another.

One type of attack on universities has become depressingly familiar partly because it is so easy for far-right populists to copy: a culture war targeting specific academic subjects and programs like "diversity, equity, and inclusion." One can criti...