Arab League
The Arab League is a regional organization of Arab countries established to promote economic, cultural, and political cooperation. It aims to coordinate the policies of member states and safeguard their independence and sovereignty. The league also addresses regional issues and conflicts, serving as a platform for Arab states to discuss and address common concerns.
6 Key excerpts on "Arab League"
eBook - ePubMuslim Public Opinion Toward the International Order
Support for International and Regional Actors
- Mujtaba Ali Isani(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Pivot(Publisher)
...Even before the United Nations was founded, the League of Arab States (LAS), better known as the Arab League, was formed in 1945, with six founding members: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. As such, it is one of the world’s oldest functioning regional organizations. The ambitions for the league were great: perhaps even the creation of a single Arab state that would stretch from North Africa to the waters of the Persian Gulf. Its primary aim was to prevent military conflict between member states and promote military alliance against foreign aggressors (Charter of the League of Arab States 1945). In successive years, this founding goal has been torn to shreds through constant civil and proxy wars, most notably in Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen. Finally, the brutal Gulf War of 1990–1991, which resulted over a million casualties, meant that the Arab League had certainly failed to deliver on one of its primary ambitions. Schulz and Schulz (2005) suggest that the Arab League definitely presents itself as an example of a failed regional organization. Not only has the organization been able to present a unified Arab voice on the international stage, it has also struggled to mediate conflicts between member states. Therefore, not being able to provide Arab solutions to Arab problems but rather looking Westward for economic and security guarantees. Its looming failure even before the Gulf War of 1990–1991 led the Gulf monarchies to create their own smaller, tight-knit group: the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Although the GCC has also been marred by distrust between the member monarchies, it seems as if it has certainly been more successful than the Arab League. The Arab League ’s dismal current state is likely to resonate in the public opinion of Arab citizens, which forms the main empirical crux of the chapter...
eBook - ePubInternational Institutions of the Middle East
The GCC, Arab League, and Arab Maghreb Union
- James Worrall(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...2 The Arab League Structure and evolution • Founding the Arab League • Role and purpose • Structures • Conclusion The Arab League is the longest-established international organization of the region with the largest membership, comprising 22 member states (see Table 2.1 for the list of member states with their dates of accession). It is also the region’s historically most pre-eminent institution, has the closest to universal membership of any international organization of the Middle East, and probably does have universal membership (if one excludes Western Sahara) by the terms of its own pact, which states that membership is open to “every independent Arab State.” 1 Table 2.1 Arab League members and observers Country Date of accession Egypt 22.03.1945 Iraq 22.03.1945 Jordan 22.03.1945 Lebanon 22.03.1945 Saudi Arabia 22.03.1945 Syria 22.03.1945 Yemen 05.05.1945 Libya 28.03.1953 Sudan 19.01.1956 Morocco 01.10.1958 Tunisia 01.10.1958 Kuwait 20.07.1961 Algeria 16.08.1962 Bahrain 11.09.1971 Qatar 11.09.1971 Oman 29.09.1971 United Arab Emirates 06.12.1971 Mauritania 26.11.1973 Somalia 14.02.1974 Palestine 09.09.1976 Djibouti 04.09.1977 Comoros 20.11.1993 Observer. status: Eritrea January 2003 Brazil 2003 Venezuela September 2006 India April 2007 This chapter begins by briefly exploring the early history of the organization, its formation and initial developments, with particular focus on the 1948 war with Israel, which was to define the League, as well as drawing upon some of the key colonial, political, and intellectual contexts, as discussed in the previous chapter, that drove its early years. With this as a backdrop, the second part of the chapter proceeds to outline the structures of the League and how they have been added to down the decades. This is designed not only to lay out the institutional framework within which the League functions but also to assess the aims, functions, and scope of the organization...
eBook - ePubRegional Organisations and Security
Conceptions and practices
- Stephen Aris, Andreas Wenger, Stephen Aris, Andreas Wenger(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Since, however, the League, like other intergovernmental organizations (IGO), depends for its operations on relations between its stronger member states, it reflects more than effects the regional order and regional conceptions of security. As such, its contribution to regional security is best surveyed in parallel to the evolution of the regional order and context, through several identifiable historical phases. Birth of the states system and the founding of the Arab League (1945–56) The regional state system was born weak, with fragile regimes struggling to establish their authority at home and lacking the military capabilities to threaten others, with the one exception of the emerging state of Israel. The Arab states, having newly gained their independence and embarked on state-building projects, had little incentive to dilute sovereignty; yet domestic legitimacy required being seen to defend Arab nationalism, which was being inflamed by the mounting struggle over Palestine and by resistance to the security treaties and bases the British and French sought to maintain after independence. At the same time, rival regimes sought to use Arabism to promote their regional leadership. Thus, in the negotiations over formation of the Arab League, the Hashemites, believing they could unify the Levant under their leadership, took a maximalist line in favour of deeper integration of the existing states and their rivals, led by monarchic Egypt and including Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Lebanon, a minimalist one. Egypt, though minimalist, was, as the biggest Arab power, the potential Arab hegemon. It saw Arab leadership as enhancing its leverage against continuing British control and, as nationalism’s appeal grew at home, also useful to appease domestic opposition. Hence Egypt needed to control Arabism’s agenda. 22 In parallel, aroused public opinion forced the Arab governments to go to war over Palestine...
eBook - ePub- D. Van der Meulen(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...For her part Egypt had, in May 1936, concluded a treaty of friendship with Sa‘udi Arabia thus putting an end to ten years of estrangement between the two countries. The idea of co-operation was growing among the Arab peoples but having initiated the movement Ibn Sa‘ud seems to have left its development to other hands. It was Zionist activities in Palestine that quickened it, although not immediately, for with the outbreak of the second World War England succeeded in establishing a truce in Palestine between Jew and Arab for the duration of the war. On 24th February 1943 Mr. Eden, in the British House of Commons, made a cordial reference to Arab steps towards political harmony. Great Britain was still in need of the sympathy of the Arab nations although her most anxious period of the war was by then over. But certainly it was not political interest alone that moved England to this declaration, part of her motive was the long-standing mutual attraction between her and the Arabs. In Cairo in that same year the Egyptian Premier Nahhas Pasha supported by the Iraqi Premier Nuri as-Sa‘id invited representatives of the other Arab states to discuss the possibility of forming a federation of the seven Arab nations. The British Government repeated her promise of sympathy and support and in the autumn of 1944 the preliminary conference for creating a League was held in Alexandria, again under the chairmanship of Nahhas Pasha. On 22nd March 1945, the General Arab Congress met where six Arab states were represented and only the Yemen was absent. This Congress formulated the charter of the Arab League which was signed by all parties present. On 10th May 1945 the Yemen joined and signed the charter. In the third appendix to the charter the signatories declared themselves unanimous in appointing ‘Abd ar-Rahman ‘Azam Bey as Secretary-General of the League. He seemed to be a happy choice and full of enthusiasm started on his task...
eBook - ePubEgypt And The Arabs
Foreign Policy And The Search For National Identity
- Joseph P Lorenz(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The radical members of the league have had to scramble for respectability. Libya and Syria have sought to reestablish diplomatic relations with Egypt and by March 1990 appeared on the verge of doing so. A price may have been attached. Qadhafi has reportedly confined to base the Palestinian terrorist group of Abu Nidal, and Assad has toned down his attacks on Arafat. Nowhere has the influence of the moderate Arabs been so evident as in Egypt’s emerging role in the effort to bring Israel and the Palestinians to the negotiating table. In August 1989, as Israel appeared to back away from its proposal for elections on the West Bank and Gaza, Egypt advanced a simple five-point plan that has remained the centerpiece of discussion. With its lines to Israel, the PLO, and the United States, Egypt is well placed to assume the critical task of building bridges among the parties. Not only in the peace process but also in bilateral and regional affairs, common interests have continued to draw the moderates together. The most conspicuous example of cooperative action carrying over from the Gulf war is the new economic association of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and North Yemen, signed into being in February 1989. Known as the Arab Cooperation Council (ACC), the association hopes to remove trade barriers and encourage investment among the four nations. It follows an emerging pattern of regional relationships, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council made up of Saudi Arabia and its neighbors, and the Arab Maghreb Union of the North African Arab states. The ACC has been active during its first year, sponsoring at least a dozen agreements ranging from simplified visa requirements to expanded airline flights. Politically, the association is significant for the one country in the region that does not belong—Syria—as much as for the four that do...
eBook - ePubBeyond Coercion
The Durability of the Arab State
- Adeed Dawisha, I. William Zartman, Adeed Dawisha, I. William Zartman(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Interest groups in general and professional associations in particular, in this situation turn into vehicles for the expression of demands that would otherwise find their way to political parties. It follows from this observation that the bar association tends to focus more on professional questions in a freely functioning multiparty system. Finally, Arab bar associations are also interested in enhancing pan-Arab solidarity and cooperation. Lawyers organisations of Mashreq countries established the Arab Lawyers Union, the oldest pan-Arab professional association and one of the few which is still functioning. The Arab Lawyers Union has already acted as an integrating mechanism among Arab countries, although the evaluation of its role in this respect goes beyond the limits of this work....
