Relating to the Muslim World: Maybe Less is More?
In this essay Ellen Laipson comments on the role of public diplomacy in the Muslim world.
"...is it possible to be fair and open and honest and have our message understood as transmitted? Or are our efforts to communicate officially with Muslim societies doomed to fail because of our own cultural norms and because of the agitated state of mind that many if not most Muslims have toward the United States these days? I believe we've got serious problems on both the sending side and the receiving side, and need to reflect carefully on how much, if any, of the critical society-to-society communication can be managed by government."
A PDF version of the chapter is available here.
Reprinted from A Practical Guide to Winning the War on Terrorism, edited by Adam Garfinkle, with the permission of the publisher, Hoover Institution Press. Copyright 2004 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
