Message to Obama

After the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the United States made democracy promotion a priority in the Middle East. The most notable effort is the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), a program operating on four pillars: Politics, Education, Economic, and Women's empowerment. As the largest country in the Middle East and the Arab world, Egypt's participation is considered paramount for success. Current research on MEPI does not report people's opinions, thus, this quantitative study examined Egyptian, Egyptian-American, and American perceptions of which pillar would be most effective in helping MEPI achieve its goal of promoting democracy in the Middle East. Findings from this research revealed that 47% of participants chose the Education pillar, Politics 28%, Economic 19%, and Women's empowerment 6%, leading to the conclusion that Education was perceived as the most important pillar. This researcher recommends that if President Obama's administration wishes to actively support the democratization process in the Middle East by emphasizing on education, the administration should consider the results of this study.