The Other Air Force received an “outstanding” rating in The University Press Books for Public and Secondary School Libraries. 

The Other Air Force: U.S. Efforts to Reshape Middle Eastern Media Since 9/11

Rutgers University Press

“Students of history, media, communications, and politics, as well as general readers, will appreciate this nuanced take on recent U.S. relations with the Middle East. Eschewing the tired us-vs.-them approach of too much writing on this troubled marriage, Sienkiewicz provides a detailed, well-researched look at political communication shortly before 9/11/2001 and at the sometimes-clumsy, sometimes-successful attempts to influence it thereafter. The book draws back the curtain on the activities and experiences of Middle Eastern media workers who are operatives in sort of a soft war on opinion, and who express considerable ambivalence toward their work, even as they express appreciation for the freedom it offers compared to other local options. Assumptions on the part of U.S. operatives about how to change Middle Eastern opinion and practices, particularly regarding gender, are also well examined. A worthwhile and unusual look at a media practice that has affected our safety and our worldview but about which most people know little.”—Henrietta Verma (RUSA/CODES)