Middle East Strategy at Harvard

MESH invites selected authors to offer original first-person statements on their new books—why and how they wrote them, and what impact they hope and expect to achieve. Marwan Muasher has held many high-level positions within the government of Jordan, including deputy prime minister, foreign minister, ambassador to the United States, and first Jordanian ambassador to Israel. His new book is The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation.

From Marwan Muasher

To be a moderate in the Arab world has been described as an act of courage by some, a leap of faith by others, or just plain suicidal by many. And yet, there has never been a time when moderation is more needed in the region than now.

This book is about Arab moderation, its successes and its failures. It attempts to show through a firsthand account—drawn from my experience with the peace process since Madrid—the valiant, proactive efforts of Arab moderates to bring about a peaceful and lasting end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Contrary to western conventional wisdom that Arab moderates do not exist, I show that with regards to the peace process, the Arab moderates put very forthcoming initiatives on the table, namely the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 and the Middle East Road Map of 2003, fought radical positions within the Arab world, and had their arguments prevail.

Arab politicians rarely record their experience in office, and of those who do, few are inclined to do so in English, leaving it to others to document the region’s history from the periphery. This why I have written this book in English, to record my almost twenty years of experience with issues of peace, reform and the fight against terrorism in the region, to discuss linkages between them, and to suggest courses of action.

I have also attempted to show the human side of the conflict, and explain to a western reader the psychological divides both sides have to cross to achieve peace. Again through firsthand anecdotes of my time as Jordan’s first ambassador to Israel, or the last six months of King Hussein’s life when I served as Jordan’s ambassador to the United States, the complex issues of the Middle East are explained through a human, not just an analytical, lens.

The book shows why the Arab Center is not holding, and what it takes for that center to regain credibility. It makes the argument that the center needs to focus its attention not only on issues regarding peace, but also expand its moderation to other areas of concern to Arab society—governance, political reform, economic well-being and cultural diversity. It addresses the so-far struggling process of political reform in Arab countries, and suggests a process of opening up political systems in the Arab world and the struggle to push for policies of inclusion as an alternative to the current stalemate that has trapped Arab citizens between the status quo, dominated by ruling elites who have often failed to deliver development, freedom and good governance to their people, and the more radical forms of political Islam, which many believe might curtail political, social and personal freedoms.

This book need not be an account of missed or lost opportunities, but rather a reminder of roads built but not traveled and a needed resolve to end a long journey of bloodshed. It is a call for both Arabs and Israelis to embrace diversity and adopt policies of inclusion. It makes the point that if Israel wants to finally abandon its iron-wall policy and be accepted in the region, it needs to accept, indeed work for, the right of Palestinians to live on their land free of occupation. And if the Arab Center is to triumph, ridding itself of the image its opponents paint of an apologist for the West or a compromiser of Arab rights, it must plant the seeds for a time when the peace process will end and the challenge of a robust, diverse, tolerant, democratic and prosperous Arab society remains.

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