A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America's Relations with the Muslim World

Overview

In A Necessary Engagement, the CIA's former point man on Islam makes a vigorous case for a renewal of American public diplomacy in the Muslim world. Offering a unique balance between in-depth analysis, personal memoir, and foreign policy remedies, the book injects much-needed wisdom into the public discussion of long-term U.S.-Muslim relations.

Intelligence insider Emile Nakhleh argues that an engagement with the Muslim world benefits the national interest of the United States. Therefore, the next administration should discard the terrorism prism through which the country has viewed political Islam since 9/11 and focus instead on the common interests of America and mainstream Muslims. Nakhleh investigates recent U.S. policy toward Islamic nations and offers the new administration a ten-point plan for rebuilding America's relationship with the Muslim world. The author demonstrates that winning over Arabs and Muslims requires a thorough knowledge of Arab and Muslim cultures and languages within our intelligence community, as well as a long-term American commitment of personnel and resources. While the success of these efforts will be incremental and hard to measure, Nakhleh believes that the current low standing of the United States in most Arab and Muslim countries can be reversed.

Stressing that effective public diplomacy must be a serious, coordinated effort pursued at the highest political levels, A Necessary Engagement charts a new course for future ties between the United States and the Islamic world.

Editorial Reviews

Starred Review. Nakhleh, former director of the CIA's Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program, draws on nearly three decades of experience, current research and extensive polling to argue that the majority of Muslims strongly oppose terrorism and want good governance and a functional relationship with the U.S. But, he writes, The policies of the past six years have put the [U.S.] on a collision course with the Islamic world, and have undermined American credibility and stature worldwide. He offers several recommendations for engaging Muslim communities, starting with enhancing government expertise in political Islam and including promoting multilateralism, a resolution of regional conflicts... intellectual exchanges... dialogue with adversaries and an end to wars of choice. Nakhleh defends the CIA from accusations that it failed to sound the pre-9/11 alarm (the claim made by some neo-cons... is patently false) and strengthens the case that more often than not, politics trumped intelligence in the Bush administration. Indeed, the greatest irony may be that today, a majority of Muslims view the U.S. as a threat to world peace. Incoming policymakers might want to take note. (Feb.)
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Author Information

Bio of Emile A. Nakhleh

Emile Nakhleh was a senior intelligence service officer and director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program in the Directorate of Intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency. He holds a PhD in international relations and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Princeton University Press

Filesize

1.87 MB

Number of Pages

184

eBook ISBN

9781400829989