At summit on entrepreneurship, Obama's approach to Muslim world on display
| Washington
Like George W. Bush, Barack Obama has a vision for transforming the Middle East and the wider Muslim world.
But whereas Mr. Bush emphasized change through democratization, Mr. Obama has tended to eschew the political in favor of individual endeavors in the economic and social arenas.
One result is the 鈥渟ummit on entrepreneurship鈥� that Obama is hosting in Washington this week. Entrepreneurs from more than 50 mostly Muslim-majority countries are gathering Monday and Tuesday to share and learn more about how individual action can expand opportunity and improve living conditions in their nations.
Speaking to the gathering Monday, Obama said the summit was motivated by 鈥渁 quest for new partnerships, not simply between government, but between people.鈥� And he gave two reasons for the focus on entrepreneurship: first, 鈥渂ecause you told us this was an area where we could learn from each other鈥�; and second, 鈥渂ecause throughout history, the market has been the most powerful force鈥� for opportunity.鈥�
Placing particular emphasis on 鈥渟ocial entrepreneurship,鈥� Obama said he learned as a community organizer in Chicago that 鈥渞eal change comes from the bottom up.鈥� In that vein, he paid special tribute to summit participants ranging from a West Bank university student planning recreation centers for Palestinian youths to an Afghan woman risking personal danger to promote universal education for Afghan girls.
Unlike the president鈥檚 recent nuclear-security summit, this conference involves no country leaders or officials, but instead features private-business and social-organization representatives. It鈥檚 the result of a pledge Obama made last June in a speech in Cairo to enhance US involvement with young and rising entrepreneurs in Muslim-majority countries.
鈥淲e made a very conscious choice to have this be focused on individuals, on people-to-people exchanges, if you will, rather than simply just having governments represented at the summit,鈥� says Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. At the same time, he adds, 鈥淲e wanted to have a combination of important business leaders, but also smaller and medium-sized entrepreneurs, younger people just getting started.鈥�
After years of a relationship with Muslim countries driven by terrorism and focused on political change, the Obama approach makes sense, some regional experts say.
鈥淭he attempt here is to have more of a dialogue with the Muslim world that focuses on something other than terrorism and that does more on the people-to-people level, the market side and the economic side of the equation,鈥� says Isobel Coleman, director of the Council on Foreign Relations鈥� women and foreign policy-program in New York.
The White House has come under some criticism over the two-day conference, with skeptics saying the main difficulties that entrepreneurs encounter in many Muslim-majority countries are the authoritarian and bureaucratic regimes governing them. The summit does nothing to address that issue, the critics say.
鈥淲e believe that the summit will provide a forum for people who face different obstacles, depending on where they鈥檙e coming from,鈥� Mr. Rhodes said in briefing reporters on the summit鈥檚 goals. He added, 鈥淭he best way to help people begin to overcome any barriers to entrepreneurship is to have a robust opportunity to address those issues, to learn from one another, and to pursue solutions that can help empower them going forward.鈥�
Ultimately, real change in the region will require both private-sector initiative and political change, Ms. Coleman says. But this week鈥檚 conference can be seen correcting an imbalance, she adds. 鈥淭here was a heavy reliance over the past eight years on change at the government level,鈥� she says, 鈥渁nd that raised a lot of expectations at the public level that we could never meet.鈥�
The conference places a special emphasis on the role of women entrepreneurs in Muslim communities. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to focus on that issue in remarks closing the meeting Tuesday and in a breakfast recognizing Muslim women entrepreneurs Wednesday.
The United States has not always fared well as it has tried in recent years to spotlight the role of women in bringing change to Muslim countries. Bush special adviser Karen Hughes memorably confronted a barrage of pushback from women in Saudi Arabia when she criticized the Saudi government鈥檚 prohibition on women driving.
Coleman, who has just written the book 鈥淧aradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women Are Transforming the Middle East,鈥� says the US in recent years has learned a lesson about Muslim women: 鈥淒on鈥檛 focus on driving, and don鈥檛 focus on what they wear.鈥� Instead, she says, the US can 鈥渄o much鈥� by focusing on more universal concerns.
鈥淲hat these women care about is jobs, the economy, education, and control of their own financial issues,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here has been a focus on education in recent decades, but they still confront a system that suboptimizes the education levels they鈥檝e achieved.鈥�
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