This really sounds more like a University club to keep people loyal to the government back-home, rather than an espionage operation.

Are they mutually exclusive, though? A 'loyalty club' can lead to some types of espionage, especially in an academic setting where the club members have access to some of the brightest minds in America and the research they're working on.

Research whose primary purpose is typically to get published. I have a hard time calling it espionage if you could get the same info from a JSTOR subscription, or emailing the reaserchers to talk about their work.

And the US probably does the same in other countries.

You’re being downvoted because you wrote something true.

Indeed! :-) Remember when Germany caught the US bugging their headquarters? The President looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.