Among all the articles about the Middle East over the past two weeks, these three jumped out at me as being highly relevant for U.S. global engagement strategy.
1. Amid Arab protests, U.S. influence has waned by Liz Sly in the Washington Post. The old ways won’t work anymore and if the U.S. seeks to re-establish a position of influence in the region it will have to use new tools and approaches.
That Egyptians are now at the head of the region’s long-suppressed demand for democratization comes in spite of, not because of, the United States, Khouri said. “Nobody’s listening to America anymore,” he said. “It’s become irrelevant.”
2. Let’s Try This Again by James Traub in Foreign Policy. This excellent piece is about U.S. democracy promotion in the region, offering a balanced assessment of what has worked, what hasn’t and what to do next.
Democratization, in short, meant “reform”: a process pushed from below but ultimately granted from above. And because Arab autocrats understood perfectly well that real reform would lead inevitably to demands for wholesale change they could not survive, they had learned how to open the valves just enough to let frustrated citizens blow off steam and then return to their lives of benumbed acceptance. It appeared to be a highly sustainable system.
3. How to achieve real reform in the Arab world by Marwan Muasher in the Washington Post.
Today, lip service to reform will not be enough. Arabs no longer trust in their governments’ abilities to deliver better management of political and economic matters. Action must be taken to appease an increasingly skeptical public. Arab governments should start by start by acknowledging reality and putting their countries on a track of political reform.
