Karen Hughes, the infamous head of public diplomacy at the State Department, has a lot of work to do. A new Zogby International poll, conducted among 3,850 residents of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, found the following:
Nearly 80 percent of those surveyed stated they had unfavorable attitudes — 57 very unfavorable and 21 percent unfavorable — towards the United States. More than two-thirds of those surveyed, or 70 percent, said their attitudes towards America were based on U.S. policy, while only 11 percent said they was based on American values.
Despite the fact that Middle East democracy promotion forms the core of the Bush administration’s rhetoric, 65 percent of those surveyed said they did not believe democracy is a real U.S. objective in the region. In fact when asked what they considered to be motivating U.S. policy in the Middle East, “controlling oil” (83 percent), “protecting Israel” (75 percent), “weakening the Muslim world” (69 percent), and “desire to dominate the region” (68 percent) were identified as extremely important factors. (World Politics Watch)
Hughes’ job is to help shape the way that Arabs think about the United States by organizing student exchange programs, media interviews, public speeches, visits to the Middle East and the like. Her efforts at public diplomacy, however, clearly don’t seem to be having much success. Why? Because telling Arabs that the United States is a great nation that promotes human rights and democracy will not work unless our policies match our rhetoric.
A serious commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for instance, an end to the occupation of Iraq, and a non-violent and consistent policy of democracy promotion in the Middle East would be a much more effective way of convincing Arabs of our good intentions.