Report says US diplomacy in the Muslim world a failure
Regional-USA, Politics, 10/3/2003

An October 1 report from the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World concludes that "We have failed to listen and failed to persuade."

The report, which was requested by the House Subcommittee on Appropriations and commissioned by Secretary of State Colin Powell, follows a number of governmental and private sector studies executed over the past two years, looking at U.S. efforts to communicate with audiences in the Arab and Muslim world. Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Ambassador to Syria and Israel Edward Djerejian led the inquiry.

Members of the group visited Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Senegal and Morocco and held teleconferences with individuals in Pakistan and Indonesia in the course of their three-month study of U.S. public diplomacy efforts and Arab and Muslim attitudes toward to the United States.

"We have not taken the time to understand our audience," the report asserts, "and we have not bothered to help them understand us. We cannot afford such shortcomings."

One of the primary criticisms by the report is the absence of an American voice in the arena of public discourse. "Often, we are simply not present to explain the context and content of national policies and values." This is a result of the insufficient number of U.S. officials with adequate language skills to effectively engage people from the region in public forums and on television, it says.

The group cites an observation it heard in Morocco: "If you do not define yourself in this part of the world, the extremists will define you."

The report goes on to say that the extremists have defined us "as ruthless occupiers in Iraq and as bigots, intolerant to Muslims in our own country. These depictions are dead wrong, but they stick because it is rare that governments or individuals in the region are prepared to take up our side of the story and because the United States has deprived itself of the means to respond effectively -- or even to be a significant part of the conversation."

The absence of an American voice in the regional discourse not only puts the United States at a disadvantage in explaining specific policies but also results in an inability to place those policies within a larger context of America's foreign activities, it says.

The group reported, for example, "We were told repeatedly during our visit to Cairo that Egyptians were grateful to the Japanese for building their opera house. But they were unaware that the United States funded the Cairo sewer, drinking water and electrical systems and played a key role in reducing infant mortality in Egypt."

At the same time, the report maintains that "public diplomacy needs new and efficient feedback mechanisms that can be brought to bear when policy is made." Insisting that we need to assess the impact of specific policies, the group notes that "without such assessment, our policies could produce unintended consequences that do not serve our interests."

The report notes that "our adversaries' success in the struggle of ideas is all the more stunning because American values are so widely shared. As one of our Iranian interlocutors put it, ‘Who has anything against life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?'"

The Advisory Group offered a number of recommendations to confront the negative public opinions in the region. It calls for greater human and financial resources to be channeled into engaging the Arab and Muslim world in an intelligent and respectful dialogue and promoting intercultural understanding.

Specifically, the report argues that the United States needs to cultivate its ability to address the people of the region in their own languages and provide an American voice to the media discourse, particularly focusing on television and emerging Internet technologies.

The report also notes that people within the region have a high regard for the American educational system. "Many especially admire modern education because it takes them away from the rote memorization that characterizes traditional methods of learning and moves them toward more critical ways of thinking," it says. "Education gives young people access to the global economy and in many instances delivers them from poverty."

The group suggests that the United States could capitalize on this by offering more scholarships to students from the region and establishing more partnerships between American schools and schools in the region. It also advocates the translation and publishing of up-to-date American texts into the languages of the region.

Similarly, the group asserts that the support of American Studies programs in foreign universities and the establishment of American -- Arab and interfaith dialogue programs at American universities could help to bridge the gap in understanding.

The report also supports other citizen exchange programs to facilitate professional and personal interaction between Americans and people from the Arab and Muslim world.

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