Uncharted Paths Uncertain Vision PDF Download

This is the 48th volume in the Occasional Paper series of the U.S. Air Force Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). This timely and insightful set of papers written by two USAF area specialists provides complementary -- and together comprehensive -- coverage of the critical topic of Arab perceptions of United States policy. Further, the papers expand that coverage to address in detail some of the implications of those perceptions for U.S. military presence and policy in the region. Brent Talbot focuses his analysis on the key segment of the region's population that stands between the totally dispossessed and deprived radical base and some entrenched, corrupt regimes. This Arab majority, he argues, can reshape the region's states into culturally compatible and accountable (if not purely democratic by western standards) revisionist Arab and Islamic political and economic states that are much more compatible with U.S. values and presence. This is a significant message in terms of the longer-term strategic postscript to the current U.S.-Iraq conflict. Mike Meyer focuses his analysis at the more operational level of U.S. military personnel on the ground in the region, but comes to complementary conclusions as to U.S. public diplomacy and presence. He argues that American military personnel and programs must purposefully shape the relationships -- and through them perceptions and attitudes -- with the emerging military and political leaders in this region of transition. This approach also provides a key element to the state-building exercise that will likely soon present itself. Together, the two papers suggest a wisdom of experience -- academic and practical -- that is essential to the high-stakes endgame that lies before us.