At a press conference yesterday in Washington with the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, US President Barack Obama said: “We’re partnering to expand the ties between our citizens, especially our young people… We’re welcoming more Iraqi students and future leaders to America to study and form friendships that will bind our nations together for generations to come.”

The number of Iraqi students studying in the US has historically been low, but slowed to a trickle in the late 1980s and 90s due to the Iran-Iraq war and Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Thanks to US investment and the extension of schemes such as the Fulbright programme, numbers are climbing again – increasing 45% to 616 students in 2010-11 and expected to rise 400% in 2012.

Observers say this pattern will enable America retain influence in Iraq after it leaves by helping shape the country’s future leaders. Brett McGurk, a former National Security Council adviser on Iraq in both the Obama and Bush administrations, said recently, “It is in our interest to encourage this new generation to study outside Iraq – and in the United States.”

It is also hoped it will incentivise students to return to and rebuild Iraq after the flight of skilled professionals that followed the 2003 invasion. Mohammed Saeed, 28, a Baghdad doctor currently studying at the University of Kentucky on a Fulbright scholarship, told USA Today: “This is giving us the tools to hopefully fix some of the problems. The more of us that can get this kind of experience, the better Iraq will be.”

“The more of us that can get this kind of experience, the better Iraq will be”

Other recent US initiatives to attract Iraq’s brightest and best have included a university fair  last month in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, attended by 22 institutions, and the establishment of a Facebook page providing Iraqis with information on studying in America.

The US State Department is also working with Iraq’s Ministry of Education, Science and Research on a major conference in Washington in January to involve more American universities in Iraq study abroad schemes.