The study illustrates the paradoxical relationship between nationalization and internationalization in the case of Albanian higher education. It demonstrates how global transformational processes and foreign policy have impacted the international dimension of higher education as a nation-building institution. The analysis considers the effect of foreign policy and the interactions between the state, the university, and the cultural elite. The study applies the concept of causal mechanisms as an analytical and narrative device. Foreign policy analysis is framed within an international patronage regime. The international dimension is defined in terms of international exchanges, policy borrowing, and policy discourse. The higher education policy areas it investigates are education policy, governance, academic management, curriculum, and academic mobility. The interdisciplinary analytical and methodological approaches applied here were drawn from the transnational history of education and comparative-historical analysis.