Courting and Containing the Arab Street: Arab Public Opinion, the Middle East and U.S. Public Diplomacy

Abstract

IN THE AFTERMATH OF SEPTEMBER 11, the Arab street became a subject of renewed interest and increased relevance. With the rise and virulence of anti-Americanism in the Arab and Muslim world threatening to undermine the foreign policy of the United States in a region that is vital to its interests, namely the Middle East, American foreign policy makers have sought a better understanding of the nature and dynamics of Arab public opinion. Similarly, within Arab official circles, the challenges associated with an increasingly pronounced Arab public opinion traditionally a sensitive and elusive subject has been unsettling. A street that could flare out of control is a destabilizing force. A street which exerts undesired pressures could be a liability. At the same time, a street that could be moved at will and used as a convenient instrument of realpolitik is a double edged-sword. This dual notion of the Arab street as both irrelevant and dangerous points to an amorphous socio-political entity of cultural complexity that conveniently keeps it mired in an unsettling ambiguity. Invoking key moments in contemporary Arab and Middle Eastern history while focusing on more recent events, this paper delves into the complexity of Arab public opinion by exploring how it is perceived. It also looks at three prevailing understandings of the political relevance of the Arab street: (1) The tendency to celebrate it as omnipotent and liberating; (2) The tendency to view it as submissive and therefore largely ineffective; and (3) The tendency to dismiss it altogether as mythical. A discussion of the sociopolitical underpinning of these three views will help eschew a reductive categorization of Arab public opinion, point out its dynamics and highlight its