The small country that still officially at war with Israel and torn out a series of armed conflicts - including periodic battles with Israel since 1950 and a civil war that spanned parts of the '70s, '80s and '90s - is home of the American University of Beirut, an institution that a US-style education in the first place for students from Lebanon since 1866 by setting up Christian missionaries.STORY: Studying abroad in a risky worldSTORY: defusing the tensions in EgyptThe College has a long history of Western study abroad students, though their numbers dwindled as the war after war broke out in the country of 4 million people bordered by Syria, Israel and the Mediterranean.Lebanon, about 60% Muslim and 39% Christian according to the CIA, has returned to a sense of normalcy and peace since the 2006 conflict with Israel. The U.S. State Department maintains a travel warning, advising U.S. citizens to the country on grounds of "safety and security," and as to avoid "the potential ... for a spontaneous outburst of violence continues." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also has travel warnings in effect for Israel and Syria, but not Egypt.Many American universities do not support training abroad in countries with travel warnings, and sometimes refuse to accept transfer credits from institutions in those countries or financial support for student travel there against the advice of the government and lecturing. Universities with strict travel policies have a number of their Egyptian and Syrian programs moved to Jordan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, said Peggy Blumenthal, a senior adviser to the President at the Institute of International Education. While almost all colleges take the warnings seriously, she said some are known to be more "creative" if they have confidence in the host university to quickly evacuate their students when problems strike.American University in Beirut has no official position on the U.S. warning, but Katherine Nugent Yngve, the college's director of international programs, wrote in an e-mail to Inside Higher Ed that she believes that the benefits of studying in Lebanon of the risks outweigh."Many American students tell us they like the feeling of the Ministry of the travel warning is an unfair barrier to studying abroad at AUB, like their parents, and sometimes their study abroad advisors," she wrote, adding that the U.S. government warns against travel, but prices Tomorrow's Leaders scholarships to Arab students who have degrees in Lebanon.Some 700 U.S. citizens and 2,000 westerners now to American University in Beirut, which has seen a 50% increase in the western population every year since 2007. Many of these students are seeking degrees in Lebanon, while others are for shorter-term study abroad trips. Approximately 15 students in Egypt moved to Lebanon last spring when the violence erupted, Yngve Nugent said.Among them was Dylan Sodaro, now a junior at Syracuse University.Sodaro brought the fall of 2010 at American University in Cairo and returned for the second semester on the day in Tahrir Square protests broke. Sodaro was not directly involved in the demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak, but stayed with a friend in an apartment near the square at the moment.When Syracuse called and told him to evacuate, he told them he wanted to stay.They negotiated a compromise: a semester in Beirut.Sodaro said it was a good choice, making him the chance to volunteer in the Palestinian refugee camps and further mastering Arabic. He hopes to one day work with the United Nations, perhaps in Lebanon.But Sodaro, who is Jewish, took precautions in Lebanon. He told fellow study abroad students about his heritage, but never about his Lebanese friends, something he said he now regrets. He was more open about being Jewish in Egypt, which has diplomatic relations with Israel.But the Connecticut native said it was a great semester in a place that he said often wrong in news accounts."I loved the country," Sodaro said. "The perception in the West, it is not safe, because we do not really hear updates on what normal life is like in Beirut."It's hard to put into words, because it just seemed so normal, but occasionally you would turn the corner and see a bombed flat" of previous eras of violence.He wonders whether the travel warning is more a political statement than an honest assessment of Lebanon today, and said he was grateful Syracuse is not among the universities in foreign countries always to limit study experiences in those countries.The flow of American students from less stable parts of the Arab world and in Lebanon appears to be continuing. Justin Lynch spent last fall in Cairo, but felt uncomfortable and transferred to Beirut. The political science and economics major at the University of Maine in Orono said he felt safer since arriving in Lebanon last month. He wanted to immerse themselves in another culture, but wanted somewhere he felt safe."I think if you want to address the problems in developing countries to study, you should go there," he said.But Lynch is not wearing American flag T-shirts around Beirut. And if a stranger asks, he claims to be from Germany. But even though relations between the U.S. and Lebanon are tense, he said he does not feel focused and has enjoyed Beirut and its people.For decades, American universities in Beirut and Cairo were one of the only Western-style universities in the Arab world. Both institutions - independent - educated generations of the future leaders of the region, while weathering periodic unrest.But their vitality in a way connected with that of their host countries. As Egypt flourished under the dictatorship of Mubarak, Cairo became a popular study abroad destination. With more moisture security in Lebanon in recent years, Western interest was not always so high.Now the tide seems to shift, with the nascent democracy in Egypt continue what unrest brewing. Lebanon on the other hand have shown stability.An American University in Cairo spokesperson was unable to provide current data, but on July 1 article in the Daily News Egypt confirmed anecdotal evidence and showed fewer international students who enroll.The Egyptian university remains open, and has a safety website for her students to advise. Mubarak was deposited over a year ago, and though unrest remains (including a crackdown on U.S. non-governmental organizations) the fact Lynch was studying in Cairo in the first place shows some U.S. universities are still sending students.But Beirut - despite a reputation that sometimes throws as the Middle East version of Pyongyang or Mogadishu - is thriving and growing Western interest, American University officials insist there.This is indicative of a larger trend as more Americans look to study in the Middle East and North Africa, Blumenthal said. Students interested in studying in Syria or Egypt when conditions improved, she said, and looking to other countries in the meantime.Enrollment numbers in the long existing places as Egypt tend to recover quickly when conditions improve, she added, referring to a quick bounce messages after the tsunami in Japan and China SARS outbreak."Although it looks terrible on television and university legal counsel is very interested in keeping students out of harm's," she said, "the numbers will rebound."
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