SULAYMANIYAH, IRAQ -- The professor at the front of the classroom was fighting a futile battle to keep his students' attention, lecturing them about things like uniform resource locators and "netiquette."

With just 15 minutes to go until the lunch break, it was an uphill task. Half his audience had already mentally left the building, checking their Gmail and Facebook pages on their slick new Compaq laptop computers. One student watched this summer's Iron Man movie with the sound muted.

Prof. Roger Geyer's plight would be familiar to teachers the world over, though the stakes are arguably higher here in this corner of northeastern Iraq than in other computer science classrooms. Prof. Geyer's computer lab is part of the fledgling American University in Iraq in Sulaymaniyah, an experiment in progress, trying to bring Western-style education to this war-torn Middle Eastern country.

The AUI-S, as it is known, is a rapidly growing all-English university that's shattering the boundaries of what a university in Iraq can be. It's also a reminder of a time -- before Sept. 11, 2001 -- when the United States used "soft power" rather than military force to spread its influence around the planet.

By Mark Mackinnon
www.theglobeandmail.com