CENTCOM and the Arab media

Over the last week I've written several times about what appears to be a shift in Pentagon thinking about the Arab media, away from confrontation and demonization towards engagement.  Today, Jim Krane of the AP has a fascinating piece on CENTCOM and the Arab media which largely confirms what I had been speculating about.

Krane features Captain Eric Clark, part of the CENTCOM media team, who I have seen on al-Jazeera several times. 

“We were essentially allowing al-Qaeda and other terrorists to run rampant with lies and propaganda,” said Army Capt. Eric Clark, one of two U.S. Central Command officers based in Dubai. “We're late in this fight. We're filling this huge vacuum that's existed in Arab countries for years.”
...

Influencing Arab opinion is a component of the Pentagon's new “long war” strategy, which says that America's conflict with Islamic extremists requires more diplomacy and less bombing.

Krane argues that the State Department is copying the Pentagon by setting up an Arab media team in Dubai.  From what I've seen, this is incorrect - the State Department, especially since Hughes took over public diplomacy, has been driving the action here, not Defense.   Look at Condi Rice's thirteen appearances on Arab TV in the last year to Don Rumsfeld's one, for instance.  But the more that the Pentagon signs on to the engagement approach the better, as far as I'm concerned. 

But.... this comment from Nakhle Elhage, news director at Al-Arabiya, caught my eye:

Elhage said the U.S. military has won more airtime since the Central Command team arrived. But... Elhage spoke of his frustrations at a Centcom conference in January, where he said U.S. delegates displayed little understanding of Arab views. “They want one-way traffic,” he said. “They want to give their message, but they don't want to listen.”

Yup.  As far back as my 2003 Foreign Affairs piece, and in a more sustained way in Voices of the New Arab Public,  I argued that American officials need to understand that these Arab TV stations thrive on open, contentious, free-wheeling debate.  American officials who go on them just trying to spin, stay on message, and control the agenda are going to flop.   Arab audiences will be predisposed to distrust American officials, and are carefully attuned to signs of disrespect or attempts at manipulation.  When Americans go on, they need to be ready to debate, not just to lecture.   

Regular, sustained engagement in these public Arab arguments (not just a single appearance by Rumsfeld) could hopefully create a kind of anticipatory feedback on both sides.  It isn't only that Arab TV producers should anticipate the American reaction, and how they are going to respond to CENTCOM complaints (which is what Clark, via Krane, highlights).  It's also that these American officials should anticipate how their policies are going to be play in Arab political discourse, and take that into account in the policy-formation process.   That's how public diplomacy can be integrated into the foreign policy process in a useful way - if people like Clark or his counterparts in the State Department, or senior officials, know that they are going to be engaged in these open arguments on Arab TV they might be able to avoid some glaringly stupid policy mistakes and improve other policies on the margins.  In other words, not just spinning already taken decisions but anticipating the reception of the decisions in advance and working with that knowledge of what Arabs (as opposed to Washington insiders) are really arguing about.

 

Comments

[John Steven]

“They want one-way traffic,” he said. “They want to give their message, but they don't want to listen.”

Probably because they're used to being able to do things that way with the (relatively) compliant lapdog American media... talking points and spin instead of information and openness.

[Kevin Hayden]

They'd do better to send John Stewart or Bill Maher. Both are capable of debate, capable of criticizing our flaws while upholding our strengths, and adding some humor can't hurt, either.

[janinsanfran]

Of course, first they'd have to want input from outside their closed bubble....

[collounsbury]

Sending comedians is a positively ill-considered proposition. Humour rarely translates well, above all in heated circumstances like debates etc.