One aspect of transnational education that is anticipated to grow in prominence is the international branch campus. This article is a case study of Monash University Malaysia, a Malaysian-Australian transnational education alliance which has achieved a measure of success in a field fraught with risk. It offers an analysis of the dynamic interplay between global processes and the logics of practice of situated national and institutional interests. The article shows that global processes such as marketization are realized in specifically local conditions. The joint venture was able to find its market in the particular configurations of the Malaysian postcolonial state, ethno-nationalism and neoliberalization.