Saudi Arabia's PR Challenge

For insight into ways to promote better US-Arab relations, the Saudi Arabia-based Arab News interviewed Jim Cox of the Hill & Knowlton PR firm (which worked a decade ago to promote war in the Persian Gulf). "Saudi Arabia has a cadre of friends," says Cox, "who know, respect and value it in terms of business relationships and the culture of the Kingdom. The trouble is that cadre is very small. It's a real industry-based group, limited to those who have had business contacts with the Kingdom." Arab News peppers its analysis with references to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's love of "privacy" (a euphemism for government censorship and repression). "Outside the concerns of commerce, the public image of the Kingdom as perceived by the rest of the world was not a high priority," the article states. "The question of the difference between privacy and isolation never arose. All that changed in a couple of fireballs in September last year. With the revelation that the majority of the hijackers involved in those catastrophic moments were Saudi, the carefully preserved cloak of privacy became a wall of isolation, supported by fear." As a result, Cox says, "you start with this huge hurdle of disbelief to overcome," said Cox. But who's to blame? "It's not the Saudis, it's not the government and it's not anybody else in particular. It's simply the world we live in."