Americans for Informed Democracy Would Like to Inform You

Americans for Informed Democracy Would Like to Inform You

by Eva Nagorski
We Are Family Foundation

January 27th : Washington, D.C. Town Hall Meeting on “The War on Terrorism and the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the World.” “Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) is a non-partisan organization that seeks to raise awareness in the U.S. about world opinions of American foreign policy and to counteract anti-American sentiment overseas, with the goal of inspiring greater multilateralism in world affairs. AID fulfills its mission by fostering international dialogue, publishing opinion pieces, articulating positions on issues of global importance, and organizing demonstrations.” – from the AID mission statement

A Princeton undergraduate, Seth Green was 21 when he arrived at Oxford just after 9-11 for post-graduate study. He was overwhelmed by the sympathy he received from complete strangers who expressed their grief over that September morning when they heard his accent. But less than a year later, attitudes had shifted. One day, while standing in line at a McDonald's with friends, a British student grabbed one of the Americans and said: "Is George Bush your hero? ...If I could get a bomb and get over to the United States, I'd blow myself up to kill you all."

Concerned with America's diminishing image abroad, Green and two friends, David Tannenbaum and Jason Wasfy, formed AID (Americans for Informed Democracy) in October of 2002. At Oxford, 250 Americans joined, and other American students abroad were recruited on the Web. The mission was, and continues to be, to raise awareness of how the world sees America. But in January 2003, AID added the task of “counteracting anti-Americanism.” It realized that Americans' own ignorance of the world was just as a big of a problem as anti-Americanism abroad. As a result, it went from telling foreigners about the U.S. to also telling Americans about the rest of the world. They wrote op-eds in papers like the L.A. Times and Christian Science Monitor , and were interviewed by the New York Times , MSNBC , and CNN .

Today, AID has over 500 members from more than 50 U.S. universities and in more than 10 countries. It has brought thousands of young leaders and concerned citizens together to discuss anti-Americanism, transatlantic relations, and the compatibility of the Western and Islamic worlds. It has held a series of high-profile conferences such as "What Is Driving Anti-Americanism?" and "Clash of Civilizations or Common Ground?" It works with the Institute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution, has co-hosted international student forums and panel discussions. One forum set up in the U.K. focused on U.S. media coverage of the war. Clips of different speakers on American TV and their critics were shown. Green recounts how amazed non-Americans were about the level of debate in America–they simply had no idea that Americans did not all think alike.

AID sponsored a series of events entitled “Hope, Not Hate” on September 12, 2003, financed by the Rockefeller Fund. Set up as “town hall” meetings on more than a dozen college campuses, the forums focused on relations between the U.S. and the Islamic world. Over 1,500 people attended–about half of them Muslim–and guest speakers included former U.S. Attorney-General Janet Reno and Al Jazeera's Hafez Al-Mirazi. Muslims and non-Muslims overwhelmingly agreed they'd like to eliminate terror, they believe in freedom and democracy, and they support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

AID hopes that such dialogues can bring the world back together. “As in that fleeting moment after the attacks, I think the goal is to try to refocus the world's attention on common values,” says Green. Given the current level of international tension, that won't be easy to do–but that's precisely why AID feels it is so necessary.

For more information, please visit the AID website. http://www.aidemocracy.org