Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 6 - 2007
Arab Public Opinion Experts Say Image Tied to Policy [Received via email - at last someone gets to the heart of the problem] Arab Public Opinion Experts Say Image Tied to Policy May 8, 2007 - Appearing before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee last week, two experts on Arab public opinion suggested that the United States' poor image in the Middle East was largely a result of objectionable foreign policies, not poor public diplomacy. Dr. James Zogby of Zogby International and the Arab American Institute and Dr. David Pollock of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy generally agreed that American policy, not values or culture, is responsible for the United States' decline in popularity among Arab populations. The two also expressed concern that a decline in U.S. image in the Middle East could, in Pollock's words, "constrain our policy options in the region." Both men expressed little faith in the ability of an official public diplomacy campaign to dramatically shift attitudes in the Arab world, as Zogby concluded that "Arabs are judging us not on how we live or what we say about ourselves, but on how we treat them; that is, how they perceive that we are applying our values to them." Polling Arab publics over the last five years, Zogby International found that "in almost every case, Arabs liked our values, our people, culture, and products. They did not like our policies." In a June 2004 Zogby poll, three-quarters to five-sixths of Arabs responded that policies were more determinative in their attitudes about the U.S. than American values. Contact with Americans accentuated these trends: Pollock noted that those Arabs who had experienced personal contact with the American people had a better impression of Americans by a margin that was "modest but significant." Zogby International polling revealed "that Arabs who know Americans, have visited America or even just report watching American television programs are more inclined to like our people, culture, products and values. But none of this makes them like our policies better or brings up our overall approval ratings." Pollock's assessment casts doubt even on the existence of "shared values," and he cited several statistics - including 80 per cent of Egyptians who "strongly want to keep Western values out of Islamic countries" - to draw attention to the dramatic gulf that exists between Arab and American mindsets. In response to another question in the same poll, nearly half of respondents reported a negative reaction to the concept of "American freedom and democracy." Both experts also addressed the pervasive nature of conspiracy theories about U.S. involvement in world events, drawing the attendant conclusion that official media efforts in the region directly sponsored by the U.S. government would likely be counterproductive. Significant majorities in several Arab countries believe that "most" or "nearly all" of "what happens in the world today. . . is controlled by the U.S," according to a poll cited by Pollock. In response to a question about variation in opinions about the U.S. as a factor of age, Zogby conceded that young people - often more exposed to American products and popular culture - are more likely to express fondness for our people and values. "Our best public diplomacy is being done by our corporations," he said, noting that American brands offer a piece of U.S. culture to young people in the Middle East who are eager to experience it. For full text of Dr. David Pollock's testimony go to: 
For full text of Dr. James Zogby's testimony to to: |
EXHIBITS 2007_house_testimony_arab_opinion.pdf  Testimony-20070503-Pollock.pdf |