The Foreign Service Journal, December 2003

tacts by U.S. government officials may be received with suspicion. Because such communities are often disaffect- ed and hostile to regimes in place in their countries of origin, their views need to be weighed with care. • Monitor the press and the media. Intelligence analysts do this routinely. If these analysts do not have the advantage of having worked for years in the countries they cover, this can result in judgments that are not well grounded in experience. • Cultivate academic authorities. They may visit countries with which we do not maintain diplomatic rela- tions and may have fresher knowledge and impressions than do career U.S. government employees. • Designate officers in our neigh- boring embassies and consulates as responsible for reporting on the coun- try of interest. This is a challenging assignment requiring real self-starters to carry it out effectively, but it can be very valuable. No Substitute for Experience Some questions important to determining broad policies require years of experience and profound knowledge of an area to address meaningfully: • Will democracy work in Iraq? What’s the best way to lay the founda- tion for it? • Why are so many Palestinians willing to commit suicide to kill Israelis? • What are the sources of anger that drive fundamentalists to want to damage American interests and harm Americans? (“Why do they hate us?”) • Why do some societies value dis- cipline and social cohesion more than liberty and freedom of expression? • What are the internal cleavages within a society — tribal, religious, regional, caste, class — and how do they affect the distribution and exer- cise of authority? Why do people of D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 17 S P E A K I N G O U T