Think tanks are independent organizations that devise economic and political policy. They often help government leaders by conducting research and dispensing objective analysis and advice.
US President George Bush, for example, often implements foreign policies proposed by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute.
The fresh winds of change sweeping into the Middle East after the recent war has prompted two major American think tanks — the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and the Rand Corporation — to reach out to the Arab world.
“Building a worldwide community of readers and expanding debate on global politics, economics, and ideas are critical to our mission,” says Moises Naim, editor of Foreign Policy, the Carnegie Endowment’s bimonthly magazine.
Three months ago, Foreign Policy announced the launch of an Arabic-language edition, a joint venture with the Kuwait-based Dar Alwatan publishing group and the Raik Ibn Zyad Center for Research and Studies, a Moroccan think tank.
“The Arabic edition of Foreign Policy will expose Arab readers in their home language to international policy perspectives and to cutting-edge analysis, emanating primarily from outside Arab nations, of the events that are shaping the world today,” says Mohammed Aljasem, who oversees editorial content. Aljasem also serves as editor in chief of Kuwait’s Alwatan newspaper.
Foreign Policy’s Arabic version is distributed in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
With an initial circulation of 5,000, the new magazine will feature a blend of translated and original material.
The inauguration of Foreign Policy’s Arabic edition brings worldwide circulation of the Carnegie Endowment’s magazine in foreign languages to 75,000. The magazine is also available in Greek, Italian, Spanish, and Turkish.
“The launch of the Arabic edition is an important part of our efforts to increase readership in the Arab world,” says Naim. “We’re thrilled to be working with a distinguished group of Arab colleagues.”
In a move that Michael Rich, executive vice president at the Rand Corporation, hopes is “an encouraging trend,” the California-based research and analysis organization now offers its world-famous research and policy analysis services to the government of Qatar.
Rich acknowledges that for many years “governments in the Middle East have been consumers of Rand services.”
But he says Rand’s work with Qatar, marked last week by the opening of the Rand-Qatar Policy Institute in Doha, “will now harness the research and analytic skills of hundreds of Rand experts in the United States and Europe to study some of the most important issues facing the Middle East.”
Rich says Arab governments now seek solutions from think tanks to complex policy problems in health care delivery, demographic change, education policy, infrastructure, telecommunications, transportation, public safety, criminal justice, technology and the environment.
For example, Qatar recently asked Rand to determine whether the country’s public school system provides students with an adequate range of skills in order to become successful in the changing economic marketplace.
“We outlined a range of options for Qatar to move forward. These included recommendations on where to modernize first,” says Rich.
“The government selected a number of options and implemented several policy changes.
Adds Rich: “We’re very encouraged by Qatar’s educational aspirations — and by the speed in which they’re moving toward them.”
James Gibney, the executive editor of Foreign Policy, says there is strong interest in the Arab world to learn more about fresh ideas emanating from Western think tanks. In fact, demand for the Arabic version of the magazine recently required Gibney to double the size of each bi-monthly printing.
“We see a growing desire and consciousness among elites in the Middle East to see how global integration is working,” says Gibney.
“They don’t want to be left out. I see this as part of a larger trend of think tanks focusing more attention on democratization in the Middle East.”
Arab News Opinion 7 May 2003
