Coaches, contractors and US-Arab relations

As a child growing up in Saudi Arabia in the 80s, the following joke would often be told: "Did you hear that the Kingdom finally decided to go to war against Israel? Really? Yeah, the Koreans got the contract." 

The joke was sure to elicit a chuckle. Yet, while the absurdity of government contracting out a war contract is clear, many find it natural that a government would contract out "a public relations campaign" to an advertising agency in a foreign country. 

America recently did it: U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Charlotte Beers contracted out to Madison Avenue advertising agencies, the making of movies about Muslim life in America to show on Arab television stations. Saudi Arabia, for the anniversary of 9-11 also hired a Madison Avenue firm to produce commercials on the history of Saudi Arabia.

Both ventures were flops. Why? First, naked manipulation usually fails; the public can often see right through it. Second, the problem with American perceptions of the Arab world is not with "public opinion"-indeed, public opinion matters little in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy. The problem is that the top American "opinion leaders"-say ten thousand of them-like Members of Congress, their key staffers, the editorial boards of newspapers have not engaged in truly substantive dialog with their Arab counterparts. This is what's missing from the equation.

What's the answer? The Arab World needs to stop hiring "contractors" in the form of advertising agencies, and start hiring advisors who understand the political and media process in America. Arab countries cannot hire advertising agencies to do the job for them-such efforts, are doomed to fail. The only way to truly change the hearts and minds of thousands key political leaders thousands of miles away, is to use one's own hearts and minds to get to them. 

That means that in order to be successful in America, countries across the Arab World must unleash thousands of their own young diplomats in training-students, journalists and actual diplomats-to embrace America. 

Arab countries invest plenty in coaches for their soccer teams to try to succeed on the world stage. The coaches create exercise and training programs, study opponent tactics, and try to guide the teams to success. But the national players still have to sweat, kick dribble, and learn to work together in order to succeed at the game.

For countries to succeed in their national relationship with America, their players (the educated and political classes) must do all the work, while the coaches (those with experience) provide the guidance.

And to be successful, the Arab countries first need to recognize that it must start hiring coaches and stop hiring contractors. Second, Arab governments must realize that they cannot do all the work themselves. They must unleash the creative talent of their political elite to travel to embrace America directly themselves.

As one of the few Arab-Americans at a senior level on Al Gore's presidential campaign, and an economist who spends half is life working in American politics and half his time working on grassroots development in the Arab World, I recently went on a tour of nine Arab countries (min al moheet ila al khaleej) stretching from Morocco to Oman and with political philosophies ranging from Syria to Saudi Arabia. 

The goal was to lead discussions-with students, with journalists and with senior leaders in ministries-about the Arab relationship with America, and what can and should be done to change that relationship. 

Reactions varied to my advice. Some political leaders in the Arab World were perplexed about why good conversations with Colin Powell and George Bush did not translate into policy change. Other Arab leaders talked fondly their college days in America where they had "great relations with American college students" and wondered why these relationships with "regular Americans" didn't translate into a more positive U.S. policy in the Arab World. My response was that relations at top-Bush and Powell-and relationships at the bottom-with regular college students-matter little, if the thousands of American political upper-middle classes are ignored. 

Some were skeptical. And these were usually more senior political leaders. Those who saw the value in guided upper-mid level person-to-person contacts were usually younger people involved in politics or even college students who were only beginning to learn about how America operates.

The fact that those in power were less likely to buy into the "coaching" ideology might be cause for pessimism about the future of U.S.-Arab relations, but the fact that the vast majority of the Arab World's 300 million people is under the age of 30 should make us all optimistic that future Arab leaders may seek to unleash the creativity of their best and brightest to change hearts and minds in America. Let's hope America's future leaders learn from their mistakes and that hearts and minds in the Arab World can't be changed through advertising either, but instead require direct face-to-face meetings and genuine dialog. 

Hady Amr was the national director of ethnic American outreach for Al Gore's presidential campaign. He is currently an independent consultant and can be reached at [email protected]. He wrote this commentary for The Daily Star