Closing American Universities Abroad Undermines U.S. Interests By Patrick N. Theros - September 17, 2024
The Middle East is spiraling deeper into crisis. The conflict in Gaza is entering its ninth month with no sign as to when or how it will end. Meanwhile, Israel is on the verge of invading Lebanon and the Houthis have rendered the Red Sea too dangerous for much of the global sea trade, driving up the cost of world supply lines.
In the midst of all these threats to U.S. interests, American non-governmental institutions (NGOs) and influential personalities are doing their utmost to undermine American soft power, a key pillar of our country's foreign policy.
Over the last several years a cabal of nonprofits, acting ostensibly to rid American universities of "dangerous foreign influences," have run smear campaigns against Arab or Muslim faculty at some of our best schools.
Now they have turned their sights on Education City, an initiative housing branch campuses of a half dozen of America's best universities in Doha, Qatar. Some of these attacks serve the interests of foreign countries hostile to Qatar, while others may believe they are serving American interests by their actions. They are not.
Americans too often believe only military force extends American power and influence abroad. In reality, our culture and our values do the heavy lifting in making allies out of adversaries.
Our superb universities are the heavyweights of American soft power. Since the 19th century, American universities from Boston to Beirut have influenced countries and people who would otherwise see us as a distant, hostile accomplice to the criminality inflicted upon those countries by European colonial powers.
To illustrate the point, in Beijing's Forbidden City, there's a plaque with plaudits for Americans, who had received a share of the then-huge indemnity imposed on the Chinese government after the crushing of the
Boxer rebellion in 1900. In 1908, Congress returned much of the money to China in the form of scholarships to Chinese students. The United States was the first country to ever do something of this kind. Unlike the chattering classes of today, these old-timers knew the real value of an American education to America's interests abroad.
Education City in Doha, Qatar is special: It represents perhaps the most valuable exercise of U.S. soft power in the Middle East. This 2
,500-acre research and education hub is home to the satellite campuses of six prestigious U.S. universities. Education City strengthens our relationship with a valuable ally in one of the most important regions of the world. After serving as U.S. Ambassador to Qatar from 1995 to 1998, I took the invitations to Texas A&M and Georgetown University to join Education City. I still take pride in the fact that those two schools are the most beloved among my Qatari friends.
Education City attracts students from across the globe to receive a U.S.-quality postsecondary education, even when they aren't able to come to the United States itself. In fact, there are over
4,000 students from more than 100 countries across all campuses in Education City. If you had told me twenty years ago that I'd see cohorts of international students in cowboy boots and Stetsons giving Texas A&M's signature "Gig 'Em Aggies" thumbs-up in Doha, I wouldn't have believed you. Thanks to Education City, it's a reality.
Unfortunately, some pundits and NGOs are orchestrating a campaign to shutter these schools. If they succeed, it will diminish the United States' capacity to protect our national security interests across the Middle East. It would also greatly erode our ability to help cultivate lasting peace in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, and everywhere else where conflict might arise.
Activists successfully pressured Texas A&M into
closing its Qatari campus after the last incoming freshman class graduates. No explanation has been offered other than some vague statements about "security conditions" four years down the road. I personally believe it was a panicky reaction to watching a House committee eviscerate other college presidents. The other universities -- Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, Northwestern, and Virginia Commonwealth -- are now inundated with demands to follow suit.
Those demands come from NGOs like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) and the Counter Extremism Project, which lobby on behalf of policies that'd benefit certain foreign governments.
For example, FDD claims that Qatar's hosting of Hamas leadership proves that the country is in cahoots with terrorists in Gaza. What they do not tell you is that Hamas is in Qatar
at the explicit request of the United States and Israel. When Syria ordered Hamas to close its office in Damascus, Iran offered them a home. To prevent this we asked for someone else to take them. Qatar volunteered.
Because American politicians believe we should never be seen talking directly to our enemies, we need a mediator as a go-between. Similarly, Qatar accepted a U.S. request to open a
Doha office for the Taliban, which kickstarted U.S.-Taliban negotiations. For more than a decade, Qatar has functioned as our key mediator in negotiations. After October 7th, Qatari negotiators played a pivotal role in guaranteeing the safe release of over 100 Israeli hostages from Gaza.
The NGOs ignore this context, no doubt because their organizations
have ties to the United Arab Emirates, a Gulf state that has long had tensions with Qatar.
America needs partners that have credibility with our enemies, especially in the Middle East. Without allies willing to serve as go-betweens, we'd never be able to negotiate an exit when military force fails. Qatar may not embrace all of our cultural or societal norms, but neither do most other U.S. allies with whom we maintain vital bilateral relationships. More importantly, the six universities in Education City largely maintain the same standards for freedom of _expression_ and gender equality present on their U.S. campuses. By closing these schools, we abandon the opportunity to win hearts and minds abroad.
Six of America's top universities are changing lives for the better every moment of every day in the Middle East; others are doing it all over the world. In the process, they build respect and admiration for our country, and thus America's ability to shape the world in our interests. Why do the critics want to shut them down?