Why does America's image continue to suffer in Muslim-majority countries? What are we doing wrong? Why do they, still, hate us? Polling has given us many answers, among them: "It's the policy, stupid."
But there's more to the story.
To see a new angle, I spent a week criss-crossing Germany, speaking about US-Middle East policy. But often the discussion turned to the US role in Iraq, and then, invariably the US role in post-Nazi Germany.
What I heard did not shock me, but people spoke with such conviction that I was left wondering if maybe we Americans should import some Germans to help us with our public diplomacy. It appears that the Germans also know a thing or two about post-war democratisation -- and how Americans did it right in Germany.
Here's the advice they gave in five cities, five lectures, and plenty of discussions. The elderly members of the audience, the ones who were children during the Nazi era, said it best.
They said: "We came to love America because America was humble, because America wanted to help us grow. We were afraid of Stalinism; America offered an alternative vision and a way of getting there."
They said: "America succeeded because it made efforts to help reintegrate Germany into Europe. We wanted so much to be part of Europe again. America wanted to help us become who we wanted to be."
They said: "America succeeded because there were so many German Americans who wanted to see Germany democratic and because the American government seized on their skills and brought them over."
Iraq is very different from post-war Germany. But, there are parallel lessons from the above stories for today's Iraq and the broader Middle East, some of which the Bush administration seems to understand, and many they don't. First, we must understand that we should offer a practical alternative to terror: That America should support justice and democracy for the Middle East, which means encouraging systems where citizens directly elect their leaders on a regular basis, and finding a solution that makes both Israelis and Palestinians feel like they enjoy justice, security and prosperity.
Second, on Iraq specifically, we need to help reintegrate Iraq into the Arab world and make clear to the Arab world that we want to see it, whole, sovereign and integrated, not divided, subjugated, and weak as they feel now.
Third, we need to build civil society organisations from the ground up: Ones that will at once be automatically and visibly associated with America, but also under the stewardship of Iraqis in Iraq, Egyptians in Egypt, Saudis in Saudi Arabia, etc. I'd vote for calling them "Martin Luther King Institutes."
But there's more to the story: Mr Jakob Kollhofer, director of the German American Institute in Heidelberg for the past several years, put it this way: It's about creating institutions that promote face to face dialogue. After the war, the Americans created several such German American Institutes -- then called American Houses -- across the country. Coming up on their 60th anniversaries in 2006, these institutes were first funded and run by the US, but then turned over to Germans in the 1980s when they became local NGOs. That's 40 years under direct American management, and now, 20 successful years, independent.
Here's Kollhofer's premise: "If they are talking, they are not shooting."
Here are his secrets to success. One: Talk about the issues that the people want to discuss and don't shy away from the tough issues. Lesson: If the Iraqis want to talk about democracy, talk about democracy. If the Arabs want to talk about Israel, talk about Israel.
Two: Bring the demonstrators in off the street and put them face to face with the policy makers they often hate. Kollhofer offered two modern examples. In the mid-1980s, at a time when Palestinian radical groups frustrated with America and Israel were hijacking planes in Europe, they invited sympathisers (no, not the radical groups, not even their support network, but their distant sympathisers) inside to talk with Americans about what they hated about America. The result was better acceptance of America. Kollhofer told a similar story about the recent war on Iraq. When the protesters were invited inside to meet with policy-makers, the protests ended. Lesson: Don't just work with the "moderates" in Iraq and the Arab world; work with the conservatives and Islamic groups, too (no, not militants, but perhaps their intellectual supporters).
Three: Invest heavily. After Hitler, America invested millions and millions of dollars in creating American centres in Germany. We need to do the same in Iraq and across the Arab world.
Taken together, this approach isn't just public diplomacy; it's what Kollhofer calls preventative diplomacy --preventing misunderstandings from emerging in the first place.
The writer served as National Director for Ethnic Outreach for Al Gore's Presidential Campaign and is the author of "The Need to Communicate: How to Improve US. Public Diplomacy with the Islamic World", published by the Brookings Institution. This article was contributed to The Jordan Times by the Common Ground News.
By Hady Amr
© Jordan Times 2005
