The American University of Beirut: A case for studying universities in international politics

This chapter will present the American University of Beirut as a central case for the study and discussion of the university as a transnational actor with possible transnational power in international politics. It will place the AUB among the cases of classical American missionary universities in the Middle East and China and the new cases of transnational, private higher education flourishing in the Middle East and the wider Global South. AUB and these universities are central cases in International Relations for studying transnational actors and their transnational power. Universities have been overlooked as such transnational actors.
Joseph S. Nye and Robert O. Keohane in 1971 defined transnational relations as flows of information, people and money (and goods) between non-state actors across borders. It is clear that AUB has been an exceptional transnational actor engaging deeply in flows of ideas, information, talent and financial resources between Middle Eastern and American society, including public and private sectors as well as civil society. The AUB has linked with American academia at a high level through flows of knowledge and talent. It has built high-level elite relations with American society through its board of trustees. American civil society has been a major financial partner since the missionary days to modern day foundation philanthropy. American business has supported the university and recruited its graduates. American government has supported the university financially and politically. The chapter compares the transnational relations of the AUB, the other classical American overseas universities with missionary roots in the Middle East (AUC and LAU), the more than 20 American higher education institutions founded in China around 1900 (which did not survive the Korean War) and modern day American–associated universities in the Middle East.
Much policy attention, but little scholarly attention has been devoted to the question of soft power of especially higher education in the USA and much less American overseas higher education. This chapter will present analysis on the soft power of the AUB and its peers and discuss the transnational power of these universities. The chapter will highlight the extent and limitations of the soft power of AUB and its peers since the origins, how they failed in their proselytizing mission and how students have always rejected US Middle East—or China—policy (creating acceptance of this policy was never a university aim). On the other hand, the universities have—despite proselytizing and later US foreign policy—been academically very successful and held great attraction to Lebanese and Middle Eastern—as Chinese—students. These students have been attracted to norms as academic freedom, critical thinking, gender equality and religious tolerance. My research on universities and soft power has also coined the term “reverse” soft power, how AUB and its peers attracted desired behavior in terms of academic, financial and political support from public and private sector and civil society in the USA. Finally, the chapter will conclude by looking forward toward possible research agendas on such universities and transnational power with others (to solve problems) rather than over others according to Nye’s latest writings.