When the Road Less Traveled is Paved Better

This afternoon I went to a luncheon with a scholar named Ilan Berman, the Vice President for Policy at the American Foreign Policy Council. His new book, Winning the Long War, delves into how we can best solve the crisis in the Middle East.

Compared to the policies of this and the preceding administrations, his ideas without a doubt fall into the road-less-traveled category. In this case, though, the road(s) being traveled by the government's foreign policy experts is long, windy, and full of potholes. From my vantage point, Berman's road is much better paved.

Berman's long-term solution to the U.S.'s political problems in the Middle East was framed like an issue advocacy campaign. He used terms like "constituency", "strategy" (it has a very specific meaning in campaign jargon), "branding", and "voter education". He even considered who was the best spokesperson to carry that message.

By no means is the Berman plan as politically sexy as being able to say on the House floor that $2 million was allocated to build a new school in Rwanda. But ensuring that the generation of individuals currently coming of age in the Arab World are given an education that encourages free thought, self growth, and tolerance toward all people (including the West) will build a world where terrorism is frowned upon, and where development is more than a buzzword used amongst U.N. bureaucrats.