This talk focuses on the campus-building activities of the Near East College Association (NECA), founded by American industrialist Cleveland H. Dodge in 1919. It traces the development of an American geopolitical project operating through six interlinked colleges in post-WWI Lebanon, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece. The talk will outline the ways in which notions of “character building,” “international goodwill,” and “economic improvement” were articulated through the architecture of these campuses to embed specific scientific knowledge, values, and norms in both the campuses and their students.