Our conversations with Ambassador Chas Freeman about US-Saudi relations have become a regular feature of SUSRIS offerings. We always mention that in addition to having served as US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the period that included Desert Storm he is the President of the Middle East Policy Council (MEPC) in Washington. Today we are pleased to share our conversation with Ambassador Freeman addressing the role of the MEPC and the challenges it faces in accomplishing its mission of building understanding among Americans of the Arab world and Islam.

SUSRIS: Thank you, Ambassador Freeman, for taking time today to talk about the Middle East Policy Council. Can you tell us about the mission of the MEPC?

Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr.: The Middle East Policy Council is one of less than a handful of organizations devoted to making the case to Americans that American interests dictate a strong and positive relationship with the Arabs and with Islam generally. Our board is entirely American and our focus is very much on American interests and on helping Americans understand the interests of our diplomatic partners and adversaries in the region.

The Council works in three main areas: a series of policy discussions on Capitol Hill addressing topics that are either neglected or are too awkward politically to get the attention they require on the part of Washington policy community; Middle East Policy which is the premier quarterly journal in the field both in the US and internationally; and, of course, there is the MEPC program of training high school teachers how to teach about Arab civilization and Islam.

SUSRIS: What are the challenges facing the MEPC?

Freeman: These are obviously very difficult times for any organization attempting to promote better understanding and stronger ties between the United States and the Arab world. Attitudes are extremely negative. Financial support has been very negatively affected both by the deterioration in the atmosphere -- the sense on the part of many of our Arab donors that nothing can be done to fix the negative image of the Arabs in the United States at present; the financial controls and other restrictions on international financial transactions -- inhibiting and tending to reduce the willingness to give as well; and the U.S. business interests and their level of activity in the region is not increasing -- at best it�s steady, at worst its going down. The result is that financial support from the American business community, which has traditionally been a significant source for us, is problematic. 

SUSRIS: How is the MEPC dealing with funding problems?

Freeman: About a year and a half ago the board of MEPC took a hard look at the future. We concluded that we probably couldn�t continue our work and we couldn�t survive on the basis of a continuing flow of small and medium size donations. The only way we could ensure our survival and the continuation of our work over the long run was through the establishment of an endowment. 

Thanks to the generosity of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia we have managed to accumulate an endowment that would be sufficient to allow us to close down in an orderly fashion over the course of a year if we had to do that. By close down, I mean to try to find a home for the three programs that we conduct -- the forums, the journal and the teacher training program. 

So we are very much now focused on trying to build an endowment to ensure complete continuity of our programs through all time. We probably require $12-$15 million and we are trying very hard to find donors who are willing to contribute to that.

SUSRIS:  Can you talk more about the program to train American teachers to teach about the Arab world and Islam? 

Freeman:  Our program of teacher training for high school teachers has been unique. We have done this throughout the country and could in fact have done much more than we have done, particularly right after 9-11. There was a great deal of interest in learning about the Arab world and Islam, but we haven�t had the funding on a sustained basis to do that. 

We are now in the process of completely redesigning that program, and that means we are trying to digitize it. We are updating the materials, which date from the late 1990�s. Obviously a great deal has happened since then. All sorts of new issues have arisen and the circumstances are quite different since 9-11 and the collapse of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. So we are in the process of updating the materials. We hope to put them on-line with panels of experts enlisted to review and revalidate them over four-five year cycles, so that in any four-five year period they will be completely up to date. 

Finally, because this will be Web-based we will be able to save printing costs but we will also be able to design a series of modules that are transportable from one curriculum to another and combinations of modules that are suitable for different contexts. For example, we hope we can produce a set of modules that would be particularly well suited to parochial schools or synagogue schools in addition to the public school community which has been our primary focus. We would like to be able to make materials adaptable for corporate training in the event that the American business relationship with the Arab world improves from its current low point. 

All this costs a lot of money. This project alone will cost about $800 thousand and we are in the process of trying to raise money to fund it and staff it. So we continue to do our work in a very difficult financial environment with no assurance that we will survive over the long run but with a great deal of belief in the worth of what we do.

SUSRIS: You mentioned that Middle East Policy was a production of the Council. On your Web site, MEPC.org, former Secretary of State Powell is quoted as saying the journal presented �the full spectrum of views and occasionally challenge[d] the conventional wisdom regarding the Middle East.� What topics has Middle East Policy taken on recently? 

Freeman: If you look at the Summer issue you will find that, for example, we examined the question of whether there is a responsible exit from the strategic ambush in Iraq. There is also discussion of U.S. business prospects in the Arab world following the Dubai Ports World issue. Our Fall issue will contain a revised, updated, and unabridged version of the controversial paper by Professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt on "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy." No one else in the United States has dared to publish this article, given the political penalties that the Lobby imposes on those who criticize it. So we continue to do important things that are not done by anybody else, which I think fill some gaps.

SUSRIS:  Any challenges to conventional wisdom?

Freeman: Besides the discussion of Iraq and the U.S. business outlook in the Summer 2006 issue there is an article on a nuclear Iran, a nuclear Israel, and the implications for the region and the long-term trends in the Middle East 

We also have an interview with Azzam Tamimi of Hamas on the subject of Hamas in power, which is not available anywhere else. We cover subjects that, unfortunately, others shrink from addressing. There is the usual range of book reviews on a variety of topics. I would encourage people to go to the Web site to see what�s offered on-line. However, not all the material in the journal is on the Web site so there�s also information on getting a subscription to the hard copy Middle East Policy journal.

SUSRIS:  It sounds like much of your role as MEPC President is fund raising. Where do you focus your efforts?

Freeman: I periodically visit the region -- to the Kingdom and to other countries in the Gulf. I meet mostly with individuals and companies who are interested in seeing better relations between the US and the Arab world and a better understanding by Americans of Arab viewpoints as well as a better educated public on the issue of Islam. 

Frankly, I�m delighted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has, after a long delay, begun to make serious public relations efforts. I applaud this, but I have to say, unexciting as the Middle East Policy Council may be, we have been around a long time -- close to 30 years. We are constant. We are like the faithful wife. We will be there whether the money is there or not, as long as we can survive. We do what we do because we believe in it.

Notwithstanding the current difficult atmosphere, with the help of my colleagues at MEPC -- a very lean organization, only a few staff -- but with their help I am hopeful that we can put this effort on a sustainable long-term basis. It�s clear that 50 or 100 years from now some similar effort will still be necessary. If the Middle East Policy Council were to disappear it would not be easily replaced.

SUSRIS:  Thank you, Ambassador Freeman, for telling us about MEPC's important role in building understanding of the Middle East among Americans. We hope the Middle East Policy Council will be around for many more years.

[Ambassador Freeman was interviewed by phone from his Washington office on June 23, 2006]

About Amb. Freeman

Ambassador Chas. W. Freeman, Jr. succeeded Senator George McGovern as President of the Middle East Policy Council on December 1, 1997. Ambassador Freeman was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 1993-94, earning the highest public service awards of the Department of Defense for his roles in designing a NATO-centered post-Cold War European security system and in reestablishing defense and military relations with China. He served as U. S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm). 

• Ambassador Freeman Bio

• Watchdogs, meet a gadfly by Dan Froomkin

Also on SUSRIS:

• Strengthening the Relationship: Whose Job? - A Conversation with Chas W. Freeman, Jr. - SUSRIS Interview - Aug. 14, 2006

• The Arabs Take a Chinese Wife: Sino-Arab Relations in the Decade to Come - Chas W. Freeman, Jr.- SUSRIS IOI - Jun 1, 2006

• How Can the U.S. Re-Open for Business to the Arab World? - MEPC Capitol Hill Forum - Part 1 - Ambassador Chas Freeman - SUSRIS IOI - Apr 14, 2006

• Defining Interests and a Changing Relationship - Ambassador Chas Freeman Interview - Part I - Oct 29, 2004