Steven Schlossstein’s latest book is "Endangered Species: Why Muslim Economies Fail."
By: David Campbell
Princeton author Steven Schlossstein believes solutions to the Middle East’s troubles can be found by looking to the East rather than feeling victimized by the West.
In his latest book, "Endangered Species: Why Muslim Economies Fail," released this week by Stratford Books, Mr. Schlossstein argues that the Arab world could move more successfully into the 21st century by taking some cues from places like Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore and Seoul.
"The high-performing economies of East Asia can supply more useful strategies for modernization while protecting valuable historic traditions than either the United States or Europe, given the widespread level of hostility that increasingly characterizes the Arab world’s relationship with the West," said Mr. Schlossstein, a Fairway Drive resident.
He said Muslim countries of the Middle East would do well to send their best people to Asia to learn. He said Japan can show them how to create viable public institutions; China can demonstrate the finer points of political control while "turbocharging" its economy; and he said Singapore can model incentives for population control.
The Islamic political model a lethal combination of religious law, repressive governance, debilitating overpopulation and unemployment, he said is "an intellectual bust."
Mr. Schlossstein contends Persian Gulf countries are in peril and need urgent attention.
"Islam has contributed little except explosive population growth, the destruction of the middle class, and growing numbers of illiterate or poorly educated masses," he said.
Mr. Schlossstein heads his own strategic consulting firm, SBS Associates Inc., which assists U.S. companies in the Far East. He is a former vice president at JP Morgan, and author of several prior publications. His books include "Asia’s New Little Dragons: The Dynamic Emergence of Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia," "Trade War" and the novel "Kensei." "Endangered Species" is his eighth book.
The author’s latest book is the product of more than 200 interviews conducted during visits to the Middle East during 2003. He undertook in-depth talks with senior government officials, politicians, intellectuals, business executives and scholars. He also gathered opinions and insights from taxi drivers, retail merchants, police officers, soldiers, Muslim women, students and even shoeshine boys. The views gathered helped to provide a spectrum of views.
Mr. Schlossstein said one of the Middle East’s most pressing challenges is to tackle religious reform.
"Without solving the issue of separation of church and state, it’s going to be very difficult for these countries to make much progress," he explained. "Half of their school curricula consist of classes in religion, which is a hell of a way to train their students for 21st-century competitiveness.
"It occurred to me that Western policymakers were routinely ignoring economic strategies as a means of dealing with this issue, and it was also apparent that the West’s neoclassical economic theory would be of little use to Middle East economies, given their under-performing status," he explained.
"The economies of East Asia were in a comparable position 40 years ago: low per capita incomes, rising populations, no natural resources," he said. "The strategies they embraced, which I detail in the book, not only brought them out of the basement, but helped create the now-familiar East Asian economic miracle of the ‘Little Dragons.’ Theirs is the matrix I have applied to the Arab Middle East, suggesting that the solutions have to come from their own leadership, not from the outside."

