Lynch on Arab Media

April's CEIP Arab Reform Bulletin has a good article by Marc Lynch advocating that the U.S. treat the Arab media as potential allies in the war of ideas. Parts of it will sound familiar, but it is still worth a read. Toward the end, he also addresses the concept of "moderation" in discussions of Arab politics:

"The U.S. should also broaden its definition of political "moderation" in the Arab context. The curious tendency to define moderation in terms of support for American policy towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or the occupation of Iraq radically and unnecessarily circumscribes the range of possible U.S. interlocutors. Moderation should be understood not as a set of pre-defined political positions but in terms of openness to dialogue and pragmatic willingness to engage with others to resolve contentious problems.".