Rebuilding
US-Arab Ties
Dr.
James Zogby
[Arab News, March 18, 2005]
While
the Bush administration and much of the US media
paint a rosy picture of US success in producing
“Freedom on the March,” from Afghanistan to
Egypt, a more thoughtful assessment of the real
problems facing the US-Arab relationship came last
week from a distinguished group of former US
government officials.
The
group, convened by the Washington-based Center for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS),
released a report, “From Conflict to
Cooperation: Writing a New Chapter in US-Arab
Relations.” The effort was chaired by former US
Secretary of Defense William Cohen, and former US
Ambassador to Morocco Edward Gabriel, and included
a distinguished bipartisan group of former US
government officials, academics, and business
professionals, all with substantial involvement in
the Middle East. There were three former assistant
secretaries of state, a former Republican national
security advisor, a former undersecretary of
defense, as well as a number of US ambassadors.
Instead
of the “spin” used by the administration to
describe current US-Middle East relations, the
CSIS “Advisory Committee on US Policy in the
Arab World” begins their report with a sober
assessment of the challenges faced by the US in
the region.
“US-Arab
relations are at their lowest point in
generations. We are facing unprecedented
opposition in the region. The number of Arabs
coming to the United States to study, do business,
visit, or seek medical care is plummeting. Fear,
anger, and frustration between Arabs and Americans
are creating a dangerous trust gap that is growing
wider every day.
Our
commitment to reverse these trends is not driven
by starry-eyed idealism, but rather a clear-eyed
assessment that broken Arab-US relations are a
serious threat to the long-term security and
interests of both sides.”
Critical
to reversing this downward trend, the CSIS report
states that the US must take measures to stabilize
and leave Iraq and show “active leadership in
forging a comprehensive solution that creates a
democratic, secure, state of Palestine alongside
the democratic, secure, Jewish state of Israel.”
But
as important as resolving these two issues may be
to improving US standing in the Middle East, the
report notes that much more than this needs to be
done.
Based
on an evaluation of current US-Middle East
initiatives and a yearlong study tour that
involved discussions with leaders, opinion makers
and citizens in nine Arab countries, the CSIS
group recommended a number of constructive
programs to reshape US policy toward the region.
Some of these are worth noting.
The
report recognizes that “political, economic and
social reforms are essential to long-term
stability in the Arab World,” but also
recognizes that, for the US to be helpful,
administration efforts need to be better informed
and coordinated. The first set of recommendations
is, therefore, directed at this goal. They propose
the establishment of a Presidential Advisory Board
on Arab Growth and Development “to help
determine and oversee the right package of trade,
aid, debt relief, and other resources necessary to
facilitate long-term improvements in the
region.” The report further proposes the
establishment of country-by-country interagency
bilateral “task forces” that would include
representatives of relevant US agencies and
representatives of the host Arab governments. The
purpose of these bilateral groupings would be to
“create common goals across a wide number of
sectors, with future levels of funding, trade, and
debt relief dependent on reaching those
benchmarks.” While these ideas may seem simple,
their importance cannot be underestimated. A
proposal to shape policy bilaterally in
consultation with partners is revolutionary.
Because
personal relationships between the Arab world and
the US have become strained in the post-Sept. 11
era, the report recognizes this as a serious
problem, and, therefore, recommends efforts to
dramatically increase interaction between
Americans and Arabs. The study proposes a
commission to remove roadblocks that impede Arab
students from coming to the US, and calls for the
establishment of an Arab Partnership Foundation (APF),
an independent publicly and privately funded
corporation to “foster education,
entrepreneurship, and reform among the next
generation of Arab leaders.”
Among
its wide-ranging responsibilities, the APF would
be charged with bringing 5,000 Arab students to
the US and would “forge relationships among a
cross section of Arabs and Americans,” by
organizing “reciprocal visits for journalists,
religious leaders, business leaders and others
with common interests.”
In
the end, what makes the entire CSIS effort so
important is not the high-level bipartisan
composition of its drafters, or the fact that it
did not succumb to the administration’s spin
“that all is well” with the US’s Mideast
policy. Rather, it is that such a prestigious
group developed such a far-reaching set of
recommendations based on listening to the needs
articulated by Arab interlocutors. To shape US
policies and progress that meaningfully address
the region’s concerns it is important that these
policies and programs be demand-driven. By
engaging in a yearlong study, a nine-nation
listening tour and recognizing the role that US
policy has played in souring Arab attitudes, the
CSIS Advisory Committee has made an important
contribution to helping create a new climate
where, as the report concludes, “a relationship
built on common goals and common ground has the
potential to improve the fate of us all.”
—
Dr. James J. Zogby is president of the Arab
American Institute based in Washington.
[email protected]
This
article appeared in Arab News on March 18, 2005
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