Repairing Pakistan's Image Abroad -- By: Athar Osama

In my last article on the subject (Dawn, May 22, 2006) I outlined a case for a new partnership between the peoples of United States and Pakistan—one that depends on a more grass roots support and understanding of each other's interests, realities, and limitations and that is devoid of the ill-effects of short-term perverse incentives of the political leaderships on both sides. I highlighted the fact that developing such a partnership would require hard work, activism, and leadership of peoples on both sides.

While there certainly is a need for action and reciprocation from both sides, the immediate impetus for action must come from Pakistan and Pakistanis. One may argue that it is us who need a principled US support for engaging productively with the rest of the world, not only in a political sense but also from an economic standpoint, as well as for a host of our other causes, not the least important of which is our security concerns arising on both eastern and western flanks.

How does one begin to develop a solid foundation for grassroots influence in America, in particular, and the west, in general? The answer lies in the clear understanding of what the image and influence game is all about and how it can and must be played to our benefit.

The post-9/11 political environment in the western capitals is best described by an ex-colleague of mine, Dr. David Ronfeldt at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica. "It's the battle of the story", David told me in the days and weeks after the 9/11, "and the final victory would be based on who is able to win the war of ideas, not weapons." While David was clearly referring to the US War on Terrorism against Al-Qaeda, Perhaps Pakistan's war against negative perception in the west is no different either. When perceptions become reality and perceptions matter, we clearly have a battle of ideas at our hands—one that we seem to be least prepared and equipped to win.

In this battle of ideas, substantive and sustained engagement at people-to-people level is the name of the game. Doing so would require taking a positive message directly to the American people and making a cogent case for a new US-Pakistan partnership. This would require hardwork, courage, and a lot of persistence. It would also require a vision and imagination followed with seamless execution.

Is Pakistan winning the "battle of the story" in the world's capitals? Is it even putting up a good fight? Are we investing in ideas? Even a cursory observer of Pakistan's foreign policy thrusts, successes, and failures over the years would conclude neither of the above to be true.

Clearly, Pakistan's foreign policy establishment is virtually clueless vis-à-vis the true nature of the influence game and hence is caught up in firefighting from one public relations crisis to the next. In other words, we are doing the tactical at the expense of the strategic—harm reduction instead of proactive campaigning—when it comes to marketing Pakistan's image abroad. While the Pakistani American community has just begun to make some inroads into the influence game, their efforts are woefully inadequate, haphazard, and under-resourced.

Developing a grass roots support for Pakistan and repairing Pakistan's image abroad would require sustained action at three different levels.

First, at the level of individual Pakistanis, we must present and radiate a positive optimistic message to the rest of the world. This does not mean that we must be either apologetic or oblivious of Pakistan's failings but that we, in our individual capacities, do not do anything to harm the country's image. Pakistanis living abroad must act as lone ambassadors of their country and most of them do so with dignity and style.

Many in the West only know Pakistan through an individual Pakistani that they are acquainted with and often their perception of Pakistan can be shaped by how that individual conducts him or herself. There is a tendency among Pakistanis after 9/11 to withdraw from public eye, adopt low-key profile, and not to attract too much attention. Alternatively, many Pakistanis have found themselves in a position of being too apologetic for things that they—and majority of other Pakistanis— have not even done. This can be counterproductive to Pakistan's image and we must take steps to reach out to Americans and show them the positive face of Pakistan as well.

As professionals as well, the competence with which we carry ourselves sends a message to our colleagues and superiors about Pakistan. Nothing has succeeded more in building India's image than India Inc. and India Inc. did not succeed until Indians succeeded in the US. Same holds good for Pakistan and Pakistanis. However, Pakistan Inc. would never come through if majority of Pakistani businessmen and entrepreneurs would prefer to "pass through" unnoticed as "South Asian" operations of an unknown foreign company. This is a hard choice to make for Pakistani business leaders abroad but it is one with a catch-22 dilemma attached to it.

Second, at the level of Pakistani-Americans, we must be agents of political change at home and abroad. While more recently, Pakistanis have begun to enter professions of influence—politics, media, academia, and public policy etc.—their numbers are minute as compared to the demands of the tasks at hand. Pakistanis need to do more and be more willing to pursue careers in professions of influence.

Traditionally, Pakistani Americans have also been very skeptical and negative of their home country. For understandable reasons, mentioning of Pakistan doesn't quite excite the same kind of optimism and passion among Pakistani Americans that India excites among NRIs. While the Indians are proud of their identity and confident of their destiny in the world, the opposite holds true for us Pakistanis.

In what is yet another catch-22 situation, we can't realistically be hopeful of Pakistan's future unless things—political, social, and economic—take a turn towards the better at home and that would not happen until Pakistanis around the world engage meaningfully with their country. I always say, we can't hope to change Pakistan's politics until good educated people engage with Pakistan's political scene en mass. Pakistanis living abroad are a key source of hope in that respect. However, they must move from being armchair strategists, commentators, and opportunists to well-meaning political activists and agents of change. In short, they must learn to put their money where their mouth is.

The final actor in shaping Pakistan's image abroad is the Government of Pakistan itself. In many ways every sitting government has been a liability in that regard and one that has negatively shaped the perception and actions of Pakistanis and Pakistani Americans towards Pakistan. The current government is no exception. It can hardly be good news for Pakistan's image abroad when governance and politics becomes a shameless power grab for a few and the collective sensibilities of the people are ruthlessly brushed aside for the latter's benefit.

Similarly when a country's de-facto political leader makes a ridiculously irresponsible and wrong-minded statement that not only hurts the sensibilities and dignity of women in Pakistan but is also utterly non-representative of Pakistani situation, the struggle for resurrecting Pakistan's image becomes all the more steep for the rest of us.

Not only must the government of Pakistan refrain from becoming a part of the problem, it must clean house and become a part of the solution. This requires, once again, understanding the dynamics of the influence game and investing wisely in Pakistan's image abroad. A three pronged strategy that successively addresses key elements—the three Ms, namely, Mind, Media, and Money—of the ideas pipeline is likely to do the trick.

The battle for the hearts and minds of the west begins with the war of ideas in the western mind. Anybody who has experienced the western intellectual scene can testify to the tremendous premium on the battle of ideas that wages in hundreds of universities, non-profits, and think tanks around the United States and rest of the world. Ever wondered about how much Tom Freidman, Francis Fukuyama, Samuel Huntington, and Alvin Toffler and thousands of other intellectuals have done to shape the westerner's world (and their perception of it)? Yet, how well does Pakistan engage with this breed of "image makers"?

Today, more than 20 Indians serve as deans at American colleges and Universities and many more as professors and educators. How many do we have? How much research do we fund in America that is likely to have a multiplier effect on what is being said and how much is being said about Pakistan? I am sure we do not do any and that's where our image marketing efforts must start. Everything else comes secondary.

Only when we have begun to generate enough intellectual capital to knock at the American mind does the media enter the picture. For long, Pakistanis have attempted to engage with the American media by sponsoring full-page advertisements and doing letter writing campaigns etc. All that is good and noble but it is not likely to work in an intellectual vacuum for we must be able to back up our media effort by solid ideas that attract to sensibilities of American people. In fact, once a critical mass of ideas and idea-champions is available, media automatically picks up on the debate and amplifies the effect. A targeted, well-thought-out, and well-resourced media strategy is important but it must have a solid intellectual foundation to build upon.

Finally, money is an important enabler if not a decider in this game of influence. Money's influence can be indirect ( e.g. in bankrolling other aspects of the strategy) and direct (e.g. political contributions and lobbying fees etc.) GOP's strategy thus far has been to invest, albeit sparingly, in some political lobbying in the West but not in a systematic effort to develop grass roots support for Pakistan. These efforts are short-term, at best, and worthlessly ceremonial, at worst and they do not lead to grass roots support for Pakistan. GOP and high net-worth Pakistani Americans must invest in areas that are likely to deliver long-term and permanent benefits, such as, research, media, and grass roots organizations.

Clearly, Pakistan has been attempting to engage with these elements (Mind, Media, and Money) of an image marketing strategy in precisely the reverse order. No wonder then that devoid of a solid intellectual foundation, our hardly glitzy media campaigns backfire and lobbying efforts fall flat on their face like a house of cards causing major embarrassment to Pakistanis abroad and at home.

I am confident that a comprehensive image strategy built along the lines suggested above and executed—with able hands on board—is likely to deliver the goods. We, Pakistanis, are definitely up to the challenge. It is only a matter of putting our collective energies into it and committing us to a course of action and—in the same breath—to a prosperous future of Pakistan.

The author (athar.osama@gmail.com ) is a public policy analyst based in Santa Monica, CA.