Notably, the Arab World consists of around 385 million people living in 22 countries stretching from the Atlantic coast of Morocco to the Arabian Sea (“Data; Arab World”). Ninety percent of the population in the Arab world belong to Islamic religion, while the remaining ten percent belong to other religions, for example, Christian and Jewish religions. The idea of unifying the Arab nations started with the formation of the Arab League in 1945. Most Arab states gained their independence from British and French colonialists in this era. The Arab League allowed the independent states to maintain their sovereignty as individual states. The purpose of this league was to help its member states where necessary. However, the Arab nations have failed to maintain Arab nationalism despite numerous efforts by influential Arab leaders to unify these states because of various political, economic and social factors.
Fundamentally, Egypt and Iraqi monarchy aspired to have a unified Arab world. When Britain and France started their gradual withdrawal from the Middle East after the Post World War II. Arab nationalists aspired to establish a unified Arab world. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the ruling President of Egypt at that particular time, inspired the unification of the Arab unity through his charisma. He guided the process of Arab nationalism in the 1950s and ‘60s (Sharnoff 1). However, the war between Israel and the Arab nations threatened this vision. Therefore, although Gamal Abdel Nasser had a vision of a unified Arab world, which could dominate the Middle East, the conflicts amongst member states and with Israel threatened this vision.
Arab nationalism has suffered significant political setback because several Arab states have been involved in war. Notably, Israeli State went to war against the Arab states in 1948 after the establishment of Israel in Palestine. The Arab nations lost the war and Israel became a state. In addition, Arab nationalism weakened when Ba’athist Iraqi invaded Kuwait in 1990. This invasion led to the US intervention, thereby causing further disintegration in the Arab League. Furthermore, the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) became a source of disunity amongst the Arab nations. The rise of ISIS has become a threat to Iraq and Syria nations because of their religion extremism. The instability within these states have caused many people to flee these countries. Therefore, the unity of Arab nations is uncertain because of this political threat within the League.
According to Hudson, efforts by the Arab nations to promote Arab nationalism have failed because of the structural systems in these nations (10). Some of the nations have a democratic government while others do not have stable political structures. This disparity is a major hindrance to the unification process. Until recently, most Arab states did not have democratic governments. The ruling regimes of these nations used brutal force and dictatorship rule. Consequently, lack of democracy led to political instability in these states. The countries lacked mutual trust and dependency, which could have helped these nations forge a strong alliance against their political opponents, for instance, Israel. Some of the notable nations that have struggled with unstable political structures are Iraq and Egypt.
Moreover, the disparity in economic strength is a major impediment to the Arab nationalism. Some Arab nations are significantly rich while others are relatively poor. Some of the Arab countries that have high GDP are Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates. According to statistics, these nations have Gross National Income per capita ranging that ranges from $21,000 to $92,000 (“Data; Countries and Economies”). On the other hand, some nations like Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen are on the opposite end of the income scale (“Data; Arab World”).
Therefore, the incompatibility of the economies of the Arab countries has worked against the integration process. The region has remained one of the least integrated regions in the world. This has resulted in an extremely low-level of inter-Arab trade of around five percent (Hudson 11). Trading of goods has been the major driver of regional integration in other regions of the world. In the Arab countries, however, labor is the only factor that moves freely across the region. Therefore, Arab nations lack strong trade alliances that can strengthen their integration process.
Furthermore, the global environment has also worked as an obstacle to the path of Arab unity process. The Arab world has vast oil resources has always attracted international bodies. Western finances, investments, and trades have constrained independent Arab decision-making policy. The global influence has penetrated and divided the Arab world. From the 1950s to 1980s, the United States and the Soviet Union had divided the Arab world as their power of influence. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the only remaining superpower, which is the United States, has tried to subvert Arab unity and has encouraged the formation smaller federations like Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (Hudson 13).
An important social impediment to the Arab unification is the low literacy level in the Arab nations. Most people in the Arab world lack basic education and, therefore, are vulnerable to manipulation and radicalization. Furthermore, the Arab nationalist philosophy has failed to unite the population in the Arab towards achieving common goals (Hudson 14).
As mentioned earlier, the majority of the people in the Arab nations are Muslims. However, the Muslims are divided into two groups, which are Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. The Syrian civil war has increased the chasm between the two factions. In fact, the religion divide is so deep to an extent that Morocco has refused to host the 2016 Arab League meeting. According to Moroccans, the meeting would serve no purpose, because the members will not address the major contentious issues affecting this world. Therefore, they do not want to be a party to the false pretension of the Arab unity. (“Morocco Refuses to Host 2016 Arab League Summit”).
Importantly, the Arab nations have attempted to restore this vision of a unified Arab world by holding the Arab summit conference. The Arab nations have used this conference as an institutional approach to solve problems in the Arab world, while hoping for a renewed Arab integration. The Arab League members anticipate that this summit will act as a platform to deliberate on the issues affecting the Arab nations. Nasser was the first leader to convene a conference in 1964 (Sharnoff 3). The conference discussed the Israel’s plan to divert Jordan River waters. Thereafter, the summit met in Khartoum in 1967 held after the six-day war showed unity among the Arab world when they took strong views on Israel aggression.
Nonetheless, the Arab nations’ summit has revealed divisions between the summit members. For instance, an emergency summit, held in Cairo in 1990, showed the disunity between the member states. The members met in Cairo, Egypt when Iraq invaded Kuwait. The nations hoped to facilitate the peaceful process and reach a consensus that would end the war. However, the member states disagreed on the best approach to end the war. Only twelve members out of the twenty-one members accepted the resolution seeking withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. The conference saw an ugly scene of fighting between member states (Hudson 9). The conference showed the lack of mutual trust and personal acrimony between the members. Ultimately, these conferences have failed to achieve their desired political objectives. Instead of unity, they have highlighted security impasse, enmity, and personal animosity.
The Arab League and Arab summit meetings have been comparatively successful in promoting structural unity among the Arab States. There have been around seventeen specialized agencies dealing with functions such as education, culture, maritime transport, civil aviation, and monetary policy. Furthermore, these meetings have formed fifteen permanent committees to oversee various issues, which include oil, women, and human rights. The contributions of these agencies and committees have helped in the interstate functional integration.
However, the Arab League has failed on the political level. It has failed to take a decisive stand and resolve interstate disputes. Though it grew up on Palestine problem, it failed to evolve an effective deterrent against Israel, or contribute positively on negotiation with Israel (Hudson 6). The Arab League has failed to take decisive actions, as the charter has not given the League political and legal authority to act against the sovereignty of member states. In the beginning, Egypt dominated functioning of the League. This worked against the Arab states unity as smaller states became apprehensive of its intention.
Significantly, Arab nations have failed to promote Arab nationalism because of several political, economic and social factors. Most prominent Arab leaders, for instance, Colonel Nasser tried to establish a permanent body to unite the Arab nations. However, the vision of a unified Arab world is failing because the Arab nations have encountered political challenges like war and undemocratic governing structures. The economic gap amongst the member states is another factor that is impeding the integration of Arab nationalism. Furthermore, social challenges, for instance, religion divided between Sunni and Shiite Muslims are a serious threat to Arab nationalism. However, Arab summit has made progress in promoting unity in these states, although it has failed in united these states politically.
Work Cited
“Data; Arab World”. The World Bank. World Bank Group, 2014. Web. 16 March 2016. http://data.worldbank.org/region/ARB.
“Data; Countries and Economies”. World Bank. World Bank Group, 2014. Web. 16 March 2016. http://data.worldbank.org/country.
“Morocco Refuses to Host 2016 Arab League Summit”. Al Arabiya, 20 February 2016. Web. 18 March 2016.
Hinnebusch, Raymond. The International Politics of the Middle East. Manchester University Press, New York, 2003. Print.
Hudson, Michael C. Middle East Dilemma: The Politics and Economics of Arab Integration. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Print.
Sharnoff, Michael. “The End of Pan-Arabism Redux”. The Huffington Post, 22 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 March 2016.
