The Foreign Service Journal, March 2003

Even if one refrains from speculating about circum- stances and motives, and takes the initiative at face value, the outcome is mixed. On the one hand, the grim picture of the Arab world presented by Secretary Powell is accurate. We are indeed lagging behind most other regions socially, eco- nomically and politically. But, on the other hand, the prescrip- tion he proposes is totally inef- fective. He offered an initial amount of $29 million to finance the initiative in its first year of implementa- tion, which works out to about 11 cents per inhabi- tant. This is modernization and liberalization on the cheap. How many schools, factories or computers can be had with such an amount? So it should be no surprise that critics in the region have been scathing. They compare the amount with sums spent by the U.S. on military aid to Israel, or on the campaign it is preparing against Iraq, or on supporting the autocratic regimes that it wants now to reform and that are, in fact, responsible for the cur- rent dismal state of the region. They further argue that it makes no sense for countries with immense natural resources and vast revenues, and whose leaders have vast person- al fortunes invested in the West, to ask for or accept charity. So in the final analysis, the reaction that is probably most widespread in the region is outright rejection. Critics point out that the initiative came at a time when United States’ foreign policy is faced with spreading F O C U S 26 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 3 The U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative may be well-intentioned, but it represents modernization on the cheap. Bechir Chourou is a professor of international relations at the University of Tunis in Tunisia.