-from the poem “London, 1802,” by William Wordsworth
Alexander Hamilton, thou shouldst be living at this hour. Not only does the US need the genius you showed as the first Treasury Secretary, but the embattled governments of several Arab kingdoms and sheikhdoms could also use a dose of your visionary statesmanship.
As explained in the Examiner today, the Arab countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are set to discuss “their own version of a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Oman and Bahrain, seeking to quell the unrest that has come to their doorstep and presented them with their most serious challenge in decades…The plan…will include measures to improve the economic and social conditions in the two countries, the poorest members of the six-nation regional bloc…”
Students of the Persian Gulf’s politics will immediately see the similarity between this plan and the “White Revolution,” as it was known, initiated by the Shah of Iran. The White Revolution helped the Shah build some short-term socio-economic stability in his country, but could not create sufficient mass support for his regime to remain in power. The White Revolution gave way to the black robes of Ayatollah Khomeini’s followers. The rest, as they say, is history.
Assuming the GCC leaders want to survive longer than the Shah, they likely already know that just spending lots of money to appease unhappy protestors won’t be enough to secure their thrones.
They need something more substantial to present to their restless young people. They need something more ambitious than a series of televised, ribbon-cutting ceremonies. You know what I mean – the kind of announcements that incumbent Western politicians who are trying to curry favor with voters love to hold, with great fanfare, just prior to election time.
If that’s the end result of the GCC’s “Marshall Plan,” then we can already predict the outcome in advance – more turmoil, more protests and more unrest.
An Arab “Marshall Plan” sounds like a good idea – but without meaning any disrespect to the memory of General Marshall, a “Hamilton Plan” would be even better.
Hamilton’s vision of the United States as a technologically-advanced center of manufacturing has exerted great influence over the US’ economic evolution. As early as 1774, even before the Declaration of Independence, Hamilton wrote that “If, by the necessity of the thing, manufactures should once be established, and take root among us, they will pave the way still more to the future grandeur and glory of America…”
The GCC rulers need an ambitious plan, just as ambitious as Hamilton’s post-Revolutionary War Report on Manufactures, to catch and focus the energy and imagination of their young people, and to harness those qualities in constructive directions.
A 2011 version of Hamilton’s plan would focus on having the GCC countries adopt the policies necessary for their region to become a center of technological innovation, and of high-tech, high-precision manufacturing.
The GCC does not have much of a tradition of manufacturing, but it is an extremely capital-rich region with a very youthful population. So it has the cash to be ambitious; and it has the necessary future workforce.
But does the GCC have the willpower to set an ambitious goal, like becoming a center of manufacturing?
How ironic that, in a region where the oil-rich rulers are able to buy practically anything they want, the chances of them remaining in power may hinge on simple willpower — something that cannot be purchased at any price.
