Gulf/2000: the digital peacemakersC Y B E R S P A C E A S P U B L I C S P H E R E
Could the benefits of the Information Age include
enhancing diplomacy in
one of the world's riskiest regions? The founder of a new electronic research community gives
an inside view of its conception and potentials
By GARY G. SICK
THE
COMPUTER has gone through several metamorphoses since all of us began to
make room for it on our desktops more than a decade ago. First it was a nimble and versatile
typewriter, then a hefty number cruncher, and now it is becoming the ultimate
communications device, connected by modem and telephone lines to an amorphous global
network called the Internet. I eagerly invested in one of the earliest personal computers, a
quaint little machine that I now realize was the research equivalent of training wheels. I also
bought a modem when such devices were little more than clumsy novelties and dutifully
plugged into a telephone jack, only to discover there was little of any significance on the other
end of the line.
Many things have changed. My three computers are now swifter and more capacious than I could have imagined in 1982. My modems are smaller, faster, and far more cunning than their predecessors. But I still discover that there is not as much really useful information at the other end of the line as I would like. One of the objectives of Columbia's Gulf/2000 project is to help cyberspace live up to its hype, at least for those scholars like myself who are interested in the politics of the Persian Gulf.
Two years ago I sat down to lunch with an officer of the W. Alton Jones Foundation, a small and respected institution located in Charlottesville, Va. He was concerned that public information about developments in Iran and the Persian Gulf was so meager and distorted that the United States was at risk of stumbling into a new crisis in that volatile region out of sheer ignorance. I was thoroughly sympathetic. I had been a member of the National Security Council staff in the White House during the Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis, and I had written two books about the perils of crisis decision-making in conditions of uncertain or deliberately false information.
"I was warned repeatedly that there was no tradition of civil discourse among the regional states, each one of which bore some grudge against most of the others. With some misgiving I began to fax invitations to people I had never met. To my relief, most accepted quickly"
The Gulf/2000 project grew out of that conversation. There seemed to be two problems. The first related to the "cold war" in the Gulf, where historical enmities and political insecurities fueled suspicions and stifled dialogue, reminiscent of the U.S.- Soviet rivalry. The other problem was the absence of a forum for the exchange and analysis of timely and accurate information about events in the region. The community of scholars working on the Gulf was not a community at all. It consisted of a relatively small number of individuals scattered around the globe, who seldom saw each other and who had no mechanism for routinely sharing research data or assessments. One of the predictable effects of this isolation and separation was the absence of an intellectual critical mass and, consequently, the absence of a discernible and credible voice.
In response to the first, we decided to see if we could assemble a group of knowledgeable observers from each of the eight countries of the Gulf: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Drawing on the model of the Dartmouth conferences during the Cold War, which brought together non-official American and Soviet policy specialists for regular private discussions even when their governments were at odds, this group would meet periodically to discuss issues of mutual concern. With luck, the trust and personal friendships forged in those meetings would facilitate a level of informed discourse that would transcend the acerbity of the public debate and perhaps even feed back quietly to their respective governments.
Second, since this gathering Gulf/2000 would necessarily be limited to a small and select group of individuals, a global meeting place needed to be created where a wider community of Gulf specialists could meet, share views, and draw from a common body of information and opinion. Such an endeavor, which would have been inconceivable even a few years earlier, was made possible by the growing access of scholars worldwide to the Internet.
CIVILITY, CHEMISTRY, AND THE CUP
On paper, the concept was sufficiently attractive to convince the board of the W. Alton Jones
Foundation (later joined by the Rockefeller and MacArthur foundations) to provide generous
funding. Putting it into practice, however, was an entirely different matter. My fairly extensive
Rolodex proved wholly inadequate, so I spent six months asking people with long experience
in the Gulf to recommend individuals who might be professionally and temperamentally
suited to such an enterprise. There was no gulf-wide institution that could be tapped,
and I was warned repeatedly that there was no tradition of civil discourse among the regional
states, each one of which bore some grudge against most of the others.
It was therefore with some misgiving that I began to fax invitations to more than 20 citizens of the Gulf, most of whom I had never met. To my relief, most accepted quickly and with apparent enthusiasm. I was even more apprehensive as they arrived in Italy for the first conference, for I had learned that most of them also were not acquainted with each other. In a meeting of this nature, personal chemistry was everything, and there was no way to know if it would work until they arrived.
It was an instant success. Curiosity and a shared interest in policy issues overcame national differences, as did a mutual passion for soccer as we joined together the first night to watch the finals of the World Cup. Three days of intensive and often heated discussion seemed to enhance mutual respect, even when disagreements ran deep. There was genuine appreciation for an opportunity to converse seriously with their counterparts from countries popularly regarded as hostile. That experience was repeated, with most of the same individuals, at a subsequent meeting in Abu Dhabi on sensitive issues of security, and again in Italy this past summer, where policy recommendations were debated.
The electronic library of
Gulf/2000 opened its virtual doors in October 1994 with fewer than a dozen members and a
reference collection composed largely of a chronology of events in the Gulf that I had
developed for my own use over the previous eight years. But, just like the Internet itself, the
facility and its membership have grown in unpredictable ways. There are now about 100
members on five continents, and the accumulated reference materials have become a unique
and invaluable resource. Several specialized journals on Gulf issues now routinely make their
contents available to our members on line. Some of this material is extremely difficult to find,
even in a library system as large as Columbia's, and nowhere else is it available so quickly after
publication.
The library's Forum, or bulletin board, has evolved from a rather ragged scattering of news and opinion by various members into a managed series ("threads") of up to 100 topics, where major issues are tracked from day to day, and current news reports are interspersed with commentary and illuminating material from the members. Thus, for example, the thread on the demonstrations in Bahrain that began in November 1994, but received almost no attention in the Western media, provides a detailed chronology of events and commentary from visitors and Gulf residents that is self-contained and a unique reference source. The number of topics is limited only by the imagination and time of the editor and members.
The Forum is augmented with extensive chronologies (a typical month consists of more than 70 printed pages), an archive of significant articles and other documentation, and documents related to the project. The list of e-mail addresses of the members is becoming an important resource in its own right.
PUTTING THE IDEAS INTO PRACTICE
The bad news for Internet users is that the electronic library is available only to members,
each of whom has a professional interest in the Gulf. Unmoderated discussion groups on the
Internet tend to be noisy places, where people with strong opinions (and often little expertise)
conduct raucous exchanges. The Gulf/2000 electronic library is not noisy, though it can be
contentious. The good news for members is that for no fee they become affiliate members of
the Columbia computer system, with access to the extensive services it provides. This is
particularly valuable to scholars in distant locations with limited local research facilities.
The true potential of this facility was demonstrated in May and June 1995, after President Clinton announced a trade embargo against Iran. The original wording of his Executive Order was exceptionally broad and seemed to prohibit travel to Iran, participation of Iranian scholars in academic conferences, even subscriptions to Iranian newspapers and journals. If implemented as written, it would have been a catastrophe not only for Gulf/2000 but also for U.S. ability to remain informed about what is happening in Iran.
"A letter-writing campaign eventually mobilized all corners of the Middle East studies community to draw official attention to the potential infringement on freedom of expression. This was the first time that Gulf scholars had ever expressed a unified view on anything"
Using the Internet and the e-mail network of Gulf/2000, a letter-writing campaign eventually mobilized all corners of the Middle East studies community. The campaign produced, among other things, a letter by 74 Middle East scholars to the president, and a letter to the secretary of state by Human Rights Watch drawing attention to the potential infringement on freedom of expression. This was the first time that the Gulf studies community (which is highly fractionated politically) had ever been mobilized to express a unified view on anything. It seems to have had some success. The regulations eventually released by the Treasury Department excluded normal academic activities from the scope of the Executive Order.
Gulf/2000 is still young, and it is not clear what it will become if and when it grows up. But for the moment it represents an experiment in political discourse and adds a small new room to the growing edifice of the Internet. It is introducing Gulf citizens to each other, and it is introducing Gulf scholars to each other, wherever they may be. This is something new for Columbia and it is something new for political scientists. Maybe we are starting something.
GARY G. SICK, captain (ret.) in the U.S. Navy, is senior research scholar and executive director of the Gulf/2000 project at Columbia University. He served on the National Security Council staff under three presidents and was the principal White House aide for Iran during that nation's revolution and hostage crisis. His books include All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran (New York: Random House, 1985) and October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan (New York: Times Books/Random House, 1991).
Photo credits: Lena Lakoma
