Read on Twitter
1- For those looking into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo things, I stumbled across something mildly curious & interesting, at least I think so....
2 - Pompeo was scheduled to be in Iowa on March 21 for this event hosted by the FAMiLY Leader Foundation as part of the debut of a book tour for Joel C. Rosenberg's new book "The Jerusalem Assassin." https://thefamilyleader.com/u-s-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeo-joins-rosenberg-event/
3 - The event was cancelled due to COVID-19 - but with the world ablaze & a lot of fires burning, the nation's chief diplomat was going back to touch base with a key part of his own political constituency months after he decided not to run for Senate https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/06/pompeo-wont-run-senate-kansas-095166
4 - I'm mostly interested in this from an analytical perspective.
I'm curious about how different faith & political groups use narratives to connect with and mobilize constituencies on different issues.
In this case I was looking into something on the Israeli-Arab front.
I'm curious about how different faith & political groups use narratives to connect with and mobilize constituencies on different issues.
In this case I was looking into something on the Israeli-Arab front.
5 - Pompeo is supposed to back in July at this event, billed as "the Midwest's biggest gathering of Christians seeking cultural transformation - in the family, Church, government, and more." https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-family-leadership-summit-2020-tickets-89627721929
6 - This prompted me to check out a couple of Joel C. Rosenberg's books, which I'm reading now.
He sells a lot of books and you can check them out here:
https://www.joelrosenberg.com/#
He sells a lot of books and you can check them out here:
https://www.joelrosenberg.com/#
7 - Some of the books have been promoted by media personalities like Rush Limbaugh, who wrote that these books were "predictive" - that he predicts policy. https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/03/14/what-the-president-told-joel-rosenberg-about-his-new-book/
8 - The main plot line of his newest book, the Jerusalem Assassin?
The U.S. president is determined to announce his historic peace plan from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. (he got the location of what Trump actually did wrong, whew!)
The U.S. president is determined to announce his historic peace plan from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. (he got the location of what Trump actually did wrong, whew!)
9 - Palestinians denounce the U.S plan, the Saudis signal they may be ready to forge a treaty with Israel. Some of the U.S. president advisors start getting assassinated...
Watch this Christian Broadcasting Network interview to get the gist:
Watch this Christian Broadcasting Network interview to get the gist:
10 - The author has bounced around the Middle East in recent years meeting various leaders on Evangelical leader delegations - he says that his books are "reality based fiction." https://twitter.com/JoelCRosenberg/status/1074505545778905088?s=20
11 - I'm interested in this because I see these efforts to use fictional narratives to connect with communities & advance certain ideas, particularly connecting the political with the religious space, as something that's a pretty big blind spot for many foreign policy analysts.
12 - To be clear, I'm placing no judgment value, good or bad, on that observation - just noticing it as a phenomenon and how much of the policy world is pretty blind to fictional narratives, for the most part.
13 - @peterwsinger for example is one thinker I admire because he's explored policy areas through fictional narratives, like in his forthcoming book on robotics -
https://www.burninbook.com/
https://www.burninbook.com/
14 - Back to the Arab-Israeli front - I think it'd be interesting to explore more deeply how fictional narratives are employed by people of different faiths & political backgrounds to connect with broader constituencies and to advance certain visions, for better and for worse.
15 - Pompeo is clearly animated by some of this & connects with it for faith-based, political & policy purposes, and to a certain extent Trump uses paradigms like this.
16 - But I think many critics of the Trump/Pompeo policy approaches don't track this aspect & its potential power.
I'm a critic, but aim to be more constructive & less shrill than seems to be the norm these days - see my latest Iran report w/ @neoluuj https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2020/03/12/481512/putting-diplomacy-first/
I'm a critic, but aim to be more constructive & less shrill than seems to be the norm these days - see my latest Iran report w/ @neoluuj https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2020/03/12/481512/putting-diplomacy-first/
