Thank you, Assistant Secretary Jones, for your introduction, and especially for bringing together today such distinguished leaders in education, business and government. I expect this International Education Forum to spark real synergy across our several professional disciplines, as we collaborate to advance America's educational engagement with the world.

Let me begin by recognizing Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings' exemplary dedication to the expansion of international education for Americans, and of American higher education for young people from around the world. The Secretary has led delegations of university presidents to Brazil, Chile, China, Japan and Korea. And we are counting on her to bring her road show to Egypt again soon.

Ladies and gentlemen:

It is a particular pleasure to join you this morning, for I am among colleagues in my first profession, teaching. I loved her and left only when the Foreign Service seduced me away from my seventh grade classroom in the Shah’s Iran. That is where I first met the future professor Shiva Balaghi, of New York University's Kevorkian Center. Shiva, I am so touched that you joined us today, and I thank you for instigating my participation.

But it was the US Government's investment in my own international education that was truly to blame for tempting me out of a promising teaching career in the Shah’s Iran. My experience as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Italy in 1973, with its generous $1000 stipend, set me firmly on my fateful course toward the Foreign Service. (You will notice I am wearing my Fulbright lapel pin today.)

Whether educators, businesspeople, or public servants, we are all here today because we share a truly strategic and national purpose: advancing American educational engagement with the world. Many of us are products of the United States’ national strategic focus on education in another era – the national educational "surge" prompted not by 9/11, but by Sputnik. In her visit to Georgetown's School of Foreign Service only last week, Secretary Rice has spoken about what this has meant in her own personal life and her current high office. I commend her remarks at Georgetown to all who are here today.

A half-century ago, some Americans responded to Sputnik with panic. The Chicago Daily News declared that if the Soviets “could deliver a 184-pound ‘moon’ into space, the day is not far when they could deliver a death-dealing warhead.” Senator Lyndon Johnson envisioned a day when the Soviets would be “dropping bombs on us from space like kids dropping rocks onto cars from freeway overpasses.” I remember a few of my chum's dads' digging bomb shelters in their backyards.

But very few of our parents faced the post-Sputnik future by digging holes in the ground. Despite some pundits and politicians, as a nation, Americans and our leaders responded fearlessly. With our characteristic confidence, determination and good sense, we adapted to face new threats and new competition. And we were smart enough to put our priority focus -- and investment -- on education.

At universities across the country, we Baby-boomers began studying the cultures and the languages of Eastern Europe and of Asia. Our parents, fresh after the experience of World War Two and Korea, and through the most frigid days of the Cold War, made huge investments in bringing young people from the recovering parts of Europe, including the new German democracy. Sustained over the past six decades, programs like the Marshall Fellowships and Fulbright -- did I mention that I am a Fulbright alumnus? -- have brought a quarter of a million students from 185 countries to study in America. Such programs continue to enrich our own students’ educational experience, and to return young builders to other countries imbued with an unshakable appreciation for who Americans really are, and the sense that we share powerful values of freedom and democracy.

By investing in the education of American youth and of our cohorts worldwide, we as a nation built deep reserves of what we have come to recognize as “soft power,” what Joseph Nye called “the ability to get what you want by attracting and persuading others to adopt your goals.” As an American diplomat serving in the Middle East in these times, I draw heavily on those soft power reserves. We had better do much more than merely to replenish them.

Today, more than 2,000 satellites of Russian, American, and numerous other national origins orbit the earth. Of even greater impact are the many more thousands of alumni of U.S. higher education, many in positions of business, political and educational leadership, all around the world. I can't tell you how many Egyptians I've met who have studied in America, often with US Government funding as "Peace Fellows", as Fulbrighters, Eisenhower Fellows, Humphrey Fellows, American Field Service alumni, and as beneficiaries of many other programs. They have studied in all disciplines and at all levels across the United States. Their common experience of studying in America has established enduring bonds of friendship and understanding with us.

Just as importantly for shared Egyptian-American interests, American education has enabled and inspired many Egyptians to lead the economic and political transformation of their ancient country. Egyptians know that such a transformation is necessary for Egypt's re-emergence as a powerful force for regional peace and prosperity, and I believe this is now gaining momentum. At a time of resentment at what some perceive as American "pressure," educational engagement is precisely the kind of American power and influence that Egyptians warmly welcome. And it is no less effective for being welcome or "soft."

Let me cite an example of the long-term and meaningful fruits of American educational engagement with Egypt that is particularly germane to our world today, in which Americans and Arabs, Westerners and Easterners, Muslims and non-Muslims are struggling, at our respective bests, to understand and cooperate with each other. When I first served as a diplomat in Cairo two decades ago, Dr. Abul-Wafa’ al-Taftazani, the Grand Sheikh of all the Sufi orders of Egypt, who was also the vice-president of Cairo University, told me how profoundly he was moved by his own year of studying agronomy in the United States in the 1950s, funded under the Point Four program. Sadly, Sheikh Taftazani had passed on before I returned to Cairo as Ambassador three years ago. But what I learned from him in the mid-1980s has helped me to engage all the more respectfully and insightfully with today's Egyptians, including the very eminent Egyptians who follow in Taftazani's footsteps: that is, those who, like most Americans, see religious faith as a powerful and positive connection between peoples, rather than as a source of division or conflict.

Let me cite another hopeful, modern example of the power of education to overcome putatively religious antagonisms: late last year, the current Sheikh al-Azhar, the President of al-Azhar University, and the Minister of Religious Foundations joined boldly to welcome two American teachers of English to the millenium-old Azhar University. In doing so, these Egyptians have upheld the best traditions of educational reform and enlightenment in Egypt.

You are participating in today’s conference as practitioners and supporters of international education, so my purpose is to offer news you can use. Therefore, let me sketch some of the ways that our embassy works in support of U.S.-Egyptian educational contact, exchanges and partnerships.

Like other American Embassies around the world, we maintain a very active EducationUSA advising program. In partnership with AMIDEAST, we provide weekly workshops and individual counseling sessions. Our Foreign Commercial Service offices work with American institutions of higher education to stage student recruitment events, often exploiting the draw of US Embassy premises and Ambassadors.

One innovation of our EducationUSA program in Cairo is our Facebook group for Egyptian students interested in studying in the U.S. We started this group in November and we already have more than 1600 members. We communicate every day about exchange opportunities, SATs and GREs, applications and, of course, financing. And we are getting some measurable results. Late last year, entrepreneurship in for example, we used Facebook to promote an international MBA fair in Cairo, drawing more than 1000 students dreaming of learning world-class entrepreneurship in the USA.

We also reach out to pre-university students, especially the economically disadvantaged, with our English Access Microscholarship Program, aimed at students 14 to 18 years old. We now have almost 200 students enrolled in 6 Egyptian cities. They learn English – now an indispensable, fundamental requirement to fulfill their aspirations for world-quality higher education and better jobs -- and they gain an appreciation for American and wider-world culture and values. With the medium of English language comes a new world of intellectual content -- a fact that made our English teaching programs through our embassies and cultural centers overseas a very meaningful contributor to the success of American diplomacy during the Cold War.

The United States also supports at least 25 different programs of educational exchange with Egypt. It is an impressive – and growing – list. Let me cite just a few:

YES, the Youth Exchange and Study Program provides Egyptian high school students full scholarships for an academic year of living and studying in the U.S. YES is the modern iteration of the spectacularly successful American Field Service high school student exchange program, another wise American initiative of the early Cold War. This year, 30 Egyptian high school students are taking part in the program.

For university undergraduates, we have recently launched two major initiatives. The Near East and South Asia Undergraduate Scholarship Program began last year. 18 Egyptian students are already studying in the U.S.

Another new program is the Community College Initiative. This $60 million program of the US Agency for International Development will fund the study of 1,000 Egyptian students over three years at U.S. community colleges, beginning this fall. The program's focus is on developing professional level skills aimed directly at the burgeoning employment opportunities in the technical sectors.

The Fulbright Commission in Egypt runs one of the oldest Fulbright programs in the world. (I DID mention that I'm a Fulbrighter, didn't I?) Since 1949, over 5000 Egyptians have participated. In this academic year, 105 Egyptians are studying at American universities and 31 Americans are conducting research and teaching in Egypt. Fulbright offers programs for Egyptian and American students, professors, professionals, artists, scientists, researchers, teachers and religious leaders.

Finally, I want to also mention the growing number of partnerships between American and Egyptian universities to which the U.S. government contributes in some measure. At the top of the list must stand the American University of Cairo, representing over a century of prestigious private American educational interaction with Egypt that has continuously withstood the vicissitudes of global politics, including wars. Also establishing either an actual presence in Egypt or direct, formal institutional linkages are Georgia State University School of Business, Indiana University School of Law, George Washington University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Colorado State University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Maryland, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and Texas A&M. All are working with their counterparts at universities throughout Egypt in a range of fields, including business, economics, agriculture, information technology, law, and public communications -- much of the essential intellectual infrastructure of democracy and the rule of law. Other US university partnerships with Egyptian counterparts are thriving without direct US Government funding now, after getting a start through US programs a generation ago.

Beyond these, I am continually gratified to learn of many more entirely privately initiated and funded partnerships between American and Egyptian institutions of higher learning.

Let me mention an important Egyptian-led partnership initiative enjoying American private sector support and only modest US Government involvement: the Egyptian Education Initiative supports the use of state-of-the-art information technology at 2000 schools and 300 colleges, expected to reach over 800,000 students. Egypt’s First Lady, Suzanne Mubarak, launched this public private partnership. It brings together the resources of the Egyptian government, the World Economic Forum and companies like Computer Associates, Cisco, HP, IBM, Intel, Oracle and Siemens. The initiative has provided schools with computers and internet connections, established e-learning labs at universities and expanded IT training for teachers and administrators. Secretary Spellings visited the leadership committee of the Egyptian Education Initiative in Cairo’s “Smart Village” in May 2006.

The explosion of global university partnerships has only recently won wide exposure in the lay media. Much of the focus naturally has been on the Gulf, thanks to the extraordinary global shift of financial resources to that region. Many of you probably saw Tamara Lewin’s articles about the globalization of education in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago. Ms. Lewin’s message was clear: “The American system of higher education, long the envy of the world, is becoming an important export as more universities take their programs overseas.”

Despite this impetus, building such linkages can face huge bureaucratic, financial, and cultural hurdles, despite Egypt’s popular and official welcome. Indeed, not all such ventures succeed. Nonetheless, if you, your institution, or your business wish to establish or develop contacts with counterparts in the regions, you will find our Embassies in the region knowledgeable and eager to assist.

The solid impact of soft power can be difficult to measure, and is most apparent over time. Nonetheless, after six years of effort since 9-11-2001 to expand student exchanges and institutional partnerships, we are beginning to see results. Secretary Rice pointed out last week to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “We’ve increased dramatically the number of exchanges. . . . I think we’ve overcome some of the difficulties of the post-9/11 period when we really did have to think hard about who was coming into the country, but where we were in danger of sacrificing one of our best long-term tools in improving the understanding of the United States and respect for it; that is, people who come here and study and go back to their countries to be leaders.”



At long last, the numbers are improving. 2006/07 saw the first significant increase in the number of international students enrolled in U.S. higher education institutions since 2001/2002, at 3%. This increase reversed a three-year decline, to reach over 580,000 students. More importantly, new students – those who just started studies – increased by 10% last year.

With this trend, we have every reason to expect that next year we will host a new record of foreign students, topping 600,000.

And which students are leading this increase? Students from the Middle East. Their enrollments at U.S. universities increased by 25% in 2006/07. The number of Egyptian students increased by more than 10% -- very good, but not good enough. Today, there are 1664 Egyptians studying in the U.S – but I wish there were more. We should be far ahead of the 2001/2002 record.

And, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Israel, with their vastly smaller populations than Egypt, each send more students to the US.

Frankly, getting back to where we left off in 2001/2002 has been a struggle, and American educators should know that your Embassies abroad are at the forefront. We relentlessly remind our host publics that, contrary to the urban legends and folklore, America’s doors really are open -- and warmly so -- to students from around the world, and in particular those from Egypt and the rest of the Arab world. We inform them that we have recognized the seriousness of the student (and other visitor) visa problems after 9/11, and have worked hard and with meaningful success to overcome them. We spread the message that while we are making our country more secure both for our citizens and for our visitors, we remain the same famously warm, welcoming, youthful and exciting country that the Cold War generation knew and loved to visit for study, medical care, tourism, and business. We have added more consular staff to process visas. We have streamlined procedures and shortened waiting times and lines. We have put students at the front of the line: in Cairo, student visa applicants always receive next-day appointments. In Egypt, we approve 86% of student and exchange visitor visa applications, and we deliver their passports with their visas back to the traveler within four working days or less.

There is more encouraging news about America's educational engagement with the Arab world, and it partly results from our national, and natural, response to the shock of 9/11: Not only are foreign students coming back to America at higher numbers than before 9/11, but also, this trend is a two way street. The number of American students studying abroad has also reached a record. Nearly 225,000 young Americans are learning at foreign universities, an increase of more than 150% in ten years.

Where are Americans studying abroad? Increasingly, in the Middle East. It is the fastest growing region for American students, up 31% in just one year. Here again, American Embassies lend support to students -- or as often, to their tuition-paying parents -- who may be anxious about the prospect of study even in Egypt, a corner of the Arab world that particularly warmly welcomes American students and other visitors. We can not protect American students or any other visitors from all harms, of course, but a priority responsibility of every American Embassy is our services to American citizens.

I am especially proud that so many American students are choosing to study in Cairo. Both of our own daughters have done graduate study there, to their (and our) immense satisfaction. As usual, our daughters have been leading a trend: The number of American students in Cairo reportedly has tripled in just the last three years. American University in Cairo President David Arnold tells me that AUC can not come close to accommodating the demand, though its sparkling new suburban campus, opening right on schedule this summer, will increase that fine institution's campus to 260 acres, almost 29 times bigger than the acreage the university now occupies at multiple locations in downtown Cairo.

The dynamic increase in American educational engagement with the world results not only from historic global forces. As I stated at the outset, President Bush and Secretaries Rice and Spellings have repeatedly set reinvigoration of America's worldwide educational and people-to-people connections as one of America's highest foreign policy priorities.

In January, 2006, President Bush announced the National Security Language Initiative to support earlier instruction, to our children in grades K through 12, in critical-need foreign languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi, and others. This initiative also encourages students in university and in graduate school to take on the hard and critical languages. And it develops the unavoidably long pipeline necessary to bring people with high competencies in critical languages into the Foreign Service, the Defense Department, and our other foreign affairs and national security agencies.

Vital as international educational engagement is as a national security requirement, it is no less important for our prosperity. American education is an increasingly global business of high economic as well as moral and strategic impact. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy-designate James Glassman has said that “Education is America’s great brand.”

Within the United States alone, international students and exchange visitors in the United States contribute over $13 billion dollars a year to the academic institutions they attend, and the communities in which they live.

But our focus in our conference today is on the value and practical applications of America's international educational engagement in our diplomacy.

Have I mentioned J. William Fulbright, yet? Let me close with one more quote, from that giant of the U.S. Senate: “Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanizing of international relations.” I agree, and I have to presume that most of us here today do, too. I hope you also agree that international education and American diplomacy do, and must further, support each other in practical, meaningful ways.

The soft power of educational cooperation and exchange profoundly impacts our strategic interests and our ability to pursue them. If Assistant Secretary Jones confirms that we have a few more minutes, I'd be glad now to hear your insights on how you see the overseas machinery of American diplomacy meshing with your international educational pursuits, or how you would wish it more effectively to do so.

Please do drop in on your friendly, and dynamic Embassy, if you find yourselves in Cairo. Thank you.

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