What the U.S. Government Can't Do Abroad, Colleges Can

By Athanasios Moulakis (Athanasios Moulakis is president and provost of the American University of Iraq at Sulaimani). In his book The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria reflects on the "rise of the rest"—India, China, Brazil, Russia—and the relative weakening of unquestioned American preponderance in many fields, including economic growth and political power. The one exception he foresees is the continued unrivaled excellence of American universities.
What is less well known than the eminence and promise of American universities at home is the immense contribution they have made overseas to the progress and prosperity of the regions they serve. The operation of American colleges abroad dates back to the mid-19th century­—a time when the geopolitical presence of the United States in the Near East was negligible, even as the European powers were avidly competing for influence and gain in the declining Ottoman Empire.
Initially inspired by Protestant missionary zeal, those colleges came to terms with their surroundings and soon became secular, introducing Western educational methods and standards to the region in ways that were both innovative and respectful of the host societies. The education they provided created opportunities for upward social mobility in countries moving from bazaars and subsistence agriculture to more-developed forms of urban and economic organization. What they retained of their New England Puritan origins was the emphasis on forming character and inculcating an ethos of work and accountability.
As relatively sheltered havens of free inquiry, American institutions contributed to the cultural awakenings of national intelligentsias. Seemingly trivial campus activities—sports and clubs—fostered habits of voluntary association in the emerging elites of other nations. Operating in the politically unstable environment of the Near East, American universities, open to all ethnicities and creeds, have provided educational opportunities for dislocated groups. English as the language of instruction offers the invaluable asset of the world's lingua franca while bridging linguistic differences of otherwise antagonistic groups. That is clear, for example, at my institution, the American University of Iraq at Sulaimani, where young Arabs, Kurds, and Turks, whose grandfathers and fathers would have feared and persecuted one another, exchange classroom notes, play sports together, and interact in English.
Beyond education, American universities abroad have even been active in the very survival and rehabilitation of victims of violence. Take, for example, the American University of Beirut's humanitarian role during the recurring disturbances in Lebanon.
The value of education has grown at an increasing rate over the years and will continue to do so. In an age when the well-being of humankind and the planet itself depend more on disciplined and imaginative thinking than on raw resources and physical labor, the most coveted assets are educated people. American student-centered liberal education is designed to create the versatility of mind needed to cope with a world in which specialized technical knowledge becomes obsolete in a short time. People of vision have therefore adopted similar models, and founded American universities in post-conflict and post-Communist countries like Afghanistan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, to name just a few. They are young institutions that need to be nurtured, but the difficulties they face are nothing compared with the odds that were overcome by what are now flourishing and prestigious institutions in Cairo and Beirut, in Thessaloniki and the West Bank.
Most students in emerging countries will, of course, be educated at their home countries' large national universities. American schools, however, provide a catalyst for innovation and set standards across the higher-education system. Rulers in the Gulf, looking ahead and knowing that oil, unlike education, is a finite resource, have set up universities on the American model or invited leading American institutions to open branch campuses.
American education promotes lasting values that are rightly thought to be of universal validity: respect for the individual, a spirit of free inquiry, and a culture of achievement and accountability. Yet the United States itself does not seem to realize this fully. Other countries, notably France and Britain, acutely aware of the value of their educational presence abroad to both themselves and their international partners, make concerted efforts to promote their cultural outreach. The United States seems to seek quick results or none at all. It launches campaigns to "win hearts and minds" in response to insurrections, and it commissions "capacity-building" programs through expensive and largely ineffective private contractors and well-meaning but often hapless nongovernmental organizations.
By contrast, American universities abroad educate their audiences, conveying lasting values beyond the catchy but transient phrases put forth by this or that administration in fitful attempts at public diplomacy. American universities abroad do not propagandize but rather impart what is most valuable about American achievements. Thanks to their long-term effect on the development and worldview of their host societies, they may well be America's best export.