Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi
INFORMATION is power. To know your competitors and enemies well, is to be better equipped to defend yourself and interests. They would try to win this game, too. When they get to know more about you than you know about them, you lose.
We all play this game. A child would know about his mother’s weaknesses before he demands a toy. The mother would know about her husband’s current finances before she asks for that toy — and more! He would find out about his boss’s mood and company finances, before making his case for promotion. The boss should know better about competitors in the market, and the firm’s inside politics and outside strategies, before expanding into new territories to afford his workers’ job improvement.
The tools are many. Ask the wife how she knew about her husband’s secretary plans to steal him away. She must have used smart surveillance, observation and investigation.
Good studies produce good results and recommendations. Successful plans utilize good studies. If you play it better than your adversary, if you could see more into his cards than he could see into yours, you’d have a better chance of beating him, regardless of his superiority.
Why am I telling you all this, dear readers? Certainly not to warn you of your wives watching eyes (even though you should be!), or to give you hints on how to win that salary raise, since I am the last person to consult on this issue (my boss is too smart for me)! I am saying this because I have become a bit frustrated with how we in the Arab world fail to see our failure in this regard.
In USA, where I did my higher studies, “think tanks,” as they called them, are more in number and capacity, per capita, than restaurants and cafes in the our world. The same can be said about our stand versus Europe, Japan and South Korea.
Why go this far? In Israel and Iran, there are hundreds of specialized research centers, academic departments and focus groups on the Arab World. How many similar institutions do we have about Israeli and Farsi affairs? If we discounted the general-purpose Mideast programs and centers, we may be able to count them on our fingers for an answer.
Bottom line, we will have no idea what we are facing on the other side of the fence, if we had no clue about their intentions, strategies and current affairs. Being in the dark about our competitors’ profiles and policies, while they know more about our strengths and weaknesses, trends and thinking, than we do, puts us very much at a disadvantage.
We certainly need to change — yesterday! Our universities had a lot to do in this regard. The last time I checked, few departments teach Hebrew and Farsi. Less study on Israeli and Iranian social and geopolitical subjects. The same could be said about the media, research centers, and publishing houses.
Why is that? Lack of vision? Talent? Interest? I tried to find out, and am still trying.
When I put up a proposal to establish a research center for Iranian Studies, I thought it would be applauded and supported. The need was obvious and the logic was apparent. Iran teaches Arabic in schools, and studies our issues at all levels and in all interested areas — academic, religious, political, media, cultural and intellectual. Their universities, embassies, intelligent centers, and even the military, are tasked with learning more about us.
They are interested in our ethnic, social, political, religious and intellectual composition. They want to know how to strike and infiltrate; where to divide and ignite; and what makes us tick.
To make an impression, to expand influence, to protect and further national interests, you need mountains of analyzed data. This cannot be achieved by intelligence alone. The nation’s collective mind needs to be put at work.
When President John Kennedy announced US strategy to win the space race, and promised to send a man to the moon (1962), a mega research project was put into motion that included all academic and scientific institutions.
Research centers and libraries were networked. References and current studies made available to students, professors, scientists and researchers in every field.
The goal of sending a man to the moon was achieved in 1969, as promised, USSR was defeated in the scientific race, and America won its best prize of all, the greatest research machine in the planet.
My Iranian Studies Center has gone nowhere! It received no backing, no support — except for some verbal appreciation. In fact, there is no system in place, I was told, to accommodate and regulate such a center.
I wrote to officials in different government departments and a prominent university, and am still waiting for an answer.
Lets’ hope and pray we realize the power of information and the dire need for its fuel in our race to the future.
— Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah. He can be reached at kbatarfi@gmail.com. Follow him at Twitter: @kbatarfi
