Arab League Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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The Arab League, the full name of which is the League of Arab States, is a regional interstate organization headquartered in Cairo. Founded in 1945 by seven Arab states to strengthen their ties and preserve their independence, the League now has twenty-two members: Alger ia, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine (represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Three member states—Comoros, Somalia, and Djibouti—according to the usual criteria, are not Arab countries, although they have cultural and historical connections to the Arab world. Normally the dominant member, Egypt was suspended from the organization from 1979 to 1989 because of its peace treaty with Israel, and the organization’s headquarters moved to Tunis until 1990, when it returned to Cairo.

The Arab League grew out of popular demands for Arab unity. It also was a response to the rivalries of Arab leaders, as the British-allied Hashimite rulers of Transjordan (now Jordan) and Iraq hoped to form a larger entity in the Fertile Crescent and put another member of their family on the throne of Syria. British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden gave his government’s go-ahead to the idea of Arab unity in 1941, and this was followed by Transjordanian and Iraqi proposals for Greater Syria and Fertile Crescent unions, respectively. Such ideas evoked opposition from other Arab states, particularly Egypt, which did not want a new rival to its primacy in the Arab world, and the Saudi ruling family, which had overthrown Hashimite rule in the Hijaz two decades earlier and feared a future attempt at restoration. Thus, in order to counter Hashimite proposals, Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa al-Nahhas invited representatives of the Arab states to meet in Alexandria in 1944. The result was the conclusion of an Alexandria Protocol calling for the formation of a League of Arab States, which was accomplished with the signing of the pact (or covenant) of the organization at a meeting in Cairo in February of the following year. While the pact gave lip service to the possibility of “closer cooperation,” the formation of the Arab League was in fact a victory for the principle of state sovereignty.

Each member of the League wields one vote in its main organ, the council. Meetings are held on the level of either foreign ministers or heads of state. The principle of unanimity prevails, in that decisions made by a mere majority are not binding on members not voting for those decisions. A secretariat, headed by a Secretary-General (Amr Musa since 2001), is chosen by the council by a two-thirds vote, and an Economic and Social Council also exists. An Arab parliament, without legislative authority and of uncertain significance, was established in 2005.

The Arab League’s goal of political and military cooperation, as in the case of the Treaty of Joint Defense and Economic Cooperation of 1950, has been hindered by persistent divisions among the organization’s members. But the League has engaged in numerous mediation efforts and has organized peacekeeping forces, such as in Kuwait in 1961 and Lebanon in 1976. The League has established specialized agencies for cooperation in a variety of nonpolitical matters, including science and technology, administrative development, research, labor, agricultural development, satellite communications, broadcasting, and investment. It maintains information centers throughout the world.

Bibliography:

Dean, Lucy, ed. “League of Arab States.” In The Middle East and North Africa 2009, 55th ed., 1386–1397. London: Routledge, 2008
Hasou,Tawfig Y. The Struggle for the Arab World: Egypt’s Nasser and the Arab League. London: KPI, 1985
Hassouna, Hussein A. The League of Arab States and Regional Disputes: A Study of Middle East Conflicts. Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana, 1975.
Khalil, Muhammad. The Arab States and the Arab League: A Documentary Record.Vol. II. International Affairs. Beirut: Khayats, 1962.
MacDonald, Robert W. The League of Arab States: A Study in Regional Organization. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965.