Barghouti Out

Amman, Jordan So, the next Palestinian Authority president will not be selected in a real, competitive election after all. Earlier this week Marwan Barghouti pulled out of next month's contest to replace Yasser Arafat. His move clears the way for Mahmoud Abbas's ascendance to the post. A number of other candidates remain, but none have the name recognition, street credibility or organizational clout that is lined up behind Abbas (who is commonly referred to as Abu Mazen). Read More

New book released on Public Diplomacy, by Public Diplomacy Practitioners

WASHINGTON - Dec. 15 "Engaging the Arab and Islamic Worlds through Public Diplomacy," a new book about U.S. public diplomacy, was released this morning at a news conference with William Rugh, the book‘s editor, and several of its contributors. “Our report is different,” Rugh said.” Our report is based on the understanding of experts in the Arab world and the Islamic world, and most of the authors have longtime experience in the field of public diplomacy as public diplomacy practitioners.” Read More

Dialogue of the Deaf

Amman, Jordan Based on the newspaper reports from Morocco it sounds as though the Forum for the Future did not go especially well. The Forum, which was probably Colin Powell's final overseas trip as secretary of state, brought together foreign ministers and other senior figures from the United States, a number of European nations, 20 Arab nations, Turkey and Afghanistan. Read More

Movements of Change – II

Amman, Jordan – 11 December 2004 Yesterday I wrote about the opportunities the Palestinian election and, to a lesser extent, the slow rise of a new generation of Arab leaders offer for people throughout this region. Today I want to talk about what the US can and should do to help this process along. Read More

Movements of Change

Amman, Jordan Marwan Barghouti's candidacy in the upcoming Palestinian elections is partly about whether Palestinians voters will be offered a real choice or what passes for an 'election' in Cairo or Damascus. But the January 9 election also touches on a broader issue, one that has been on the region's agenda for several years: generational change, and how the United States plans to cope with it. Read More

Ballot Boxes and Real Choices

Amman, Jordan An editorial cartoon that ran in a Beirut newspaper over the weekend showed an Arab ballot box chiding a Ukrainian ballot box with the words: "You should have come to me for advice!" If you want to know how to stage a meaningless, rigged poll Arab governments are the people to ask. Read More

The Secretary’s Credibility

Amman, Jordan A friend from the state department called over the weekend to ask if I had a sense of how people here felt about the election returns. "I'd say everyone's disappointed, but nobody's very surprised," I replied. He did not ask about Condoleezza Rice's appointment as Secretary of State, but if he had I'd have said "ditto". Read More

Some Thoughts on Foreign Hospitals and Public Diplomacy

Amman, Jordan If advertising pitches are anything to go by, winding up in a foreign hospital appears to be a recurrent nightmare among Americans traveling overseas. My own first encounter with non-American medical care only reinforced this. Visiting a fellow teenager at a London hospital in 1980 I arrived in something that resembled a 30's style cancer ward in a Hollywood movie. It seemed rather severe for a guy with a broken leg. Read More

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