Marc Lynch in the National: "The conversation. Barack Obama has vowed to restore America's stature in the Arab world. The task is an enormous one, ...and will demand a reinvention of public diplomacy – grounded in new foundations that seek engagement rather than victory. ... Undermining al Qa’eda and combating extremism are important. But they should only be one small part of America’s engagement with the Arab world. There is a vast majority of politically aware Arabs and Muslims whose fury at American policy has nothing to do with Islamic extremism. The new public diplomacy must reach out to that mainstream, with words and deeds alike." My own feeling is it's mostly the policies, not really the state of art of the marketing campaign that really matter.

Posted by Laura at February 19, 2009 10:16 PM