by Joseph S. Nye, Jr, Dean of the Kennedy School of Government – Harvard University
Chapter 2: “Sources of America’s Soft Power” pp. 43-44
The effects of the Iraq War should not be exaggerated. Dire predictions notwithstanding, Arabs did not rise up to destroy American interests in the Middle East…because many of them knew Saddam Hussein’s record. As mentioned earlier, images of a country are composed of several elements, and respondents to polls showed a greater dislike of American policies than of American people. Nonetheless, there have been boycotts of American producers, and the American share of merchandise exported to the Middle East had already dropped from 18 to 13 percent from the late 1990’s to 2001 partly in response to America’s “perceived loss of foreign policy legitimacy” (reference: Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, “Dividends of Fear: America’s $94 billion Arab Market Loss,” June 30, 2003)