The drive to promote American-style higher education is among the most longstanding and enduring features of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Since its earliest engagements in the region, the U.S. government has looked to American universities to promote Washington’s interests and values. This book analyzes how American universities in the Middle East relate to U.S. foreign policy and how this relationship has evolved amid shifting U.S. priorities through two world wars, the Cold War, and the War on Terrorism. American Universities in the Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy focuses on four sets of case studies: (1) The American University of Beirut; (2) The American University in Cairo; (3) American universities in Afghanistan and Iraq; and (4) Education City in Qatar.

At a time when policymakers are litigating core tenets of U.S. Middle East policy and new actors are entering the region’s higher education space, this book provides a resource to understand the geopolitical role of American universities in the Middle East.