Arab Nationalism, Doomed or destined

     Since the advent of Islam and the spread of the Arabs outside the Arabia to what is known today as the Arab world, the Arab countries have never been united under the banner of Arabism. Different fashions of unions have always been cementing the region or parts of it but all with dynasties of a sort of Islamism. The notion of the Arabism has only started to appear less than a century ago on the hands of the Christian Syrian thinkers. That was due to three factors; the influence of the West, the appearance of the nation-state form of countries and the oppression of the Ottomans on minorities that particularly in the late nineteen century and the beginning of the twenty century.

The abolishing of the Islamic caliphate in Istanbul plus the striving of the Arab countries to gain their independence has helped gave the notion of Arab Nationalism a romantic and ideological impulse.

What makes the Arab nationalism?

Although the region has differences like ethnicities and minorities, I assume that the natural factors of the Arab Nationalism are valid and do exist. The overall fabric of the region is almost the same, the one language, the common heritage, the same cultural background, and the same history.

However, the first attempt to forge a sort of unity between the Arab countries was the establishment of the league of the Arab States in the eve of the end of the WWII. The founding of the Arab league was actually the minimum level of unification between the newly independent Arab countries. It is obvious from the name (the League of the Arab States) that the leaders then were not even thinking about giving up any inch of their newly gained sovereignty to a supra-national entity. There is no mention to the Arab unity whatsoever in the charter of the Arab league, but rather intra states cooperation. 

Nasser of Egypt not only reshaped the notion of the Arab-Nationalism but also gave it a new dimension. For the first time in the modern history the Arab nationalism has come to reality when the most important Arab country used its both soft and hard power to mobilize the Arab masses from the ocean to the gulf (the Atlantic ocean to the Persian Gulf) for one cause, which is the Arab Unity.

The Arab countries during this time were divided into two groups; the first group according to the Nasserites was the progressive regimes aka the newly established republics ruled by army officers. The second was the reactionary (Rajey) regimes ruled by sheikhs and monarchs specially those in the Gulf. As a matter of fact, this division has engulfed the region in more attritional struggles among the Arab countries and yielded into nothing but more failures on many fronts.

The attempts to impose the unity from the top like these of Egypt-Syria were short lived and a failure. Some argue that the unity of that tiny oil rich Emirates of the Gulf named United Arab Emirates were the only successful story of the Arab unity. However, there are some doubts about the significance of such a small tribal depopulated state as a scale of success of a real Arab unity. 

The Comparison between the Arab countries failure to achieve even economic integration and the success of the European countries to reach the level of the Union is very tempting.

 Some analysts argue that, despite the different languages and the history of wars in Europe, these countries were able to build their union step by step until the moment where we see now a twenty eight states united in almost all the economic and security fronts. On the other hand the Arab countries, enjoying the common heritage and same language have failed to achieve any substantial form of unity.

In my humble opinion there are three fundamental reasons (establishing Israel is none of them) why Arab countries failed to achieve even a sound economic block similar or close to the European Union.

First and foremost, the Lack or the absence of Democracy;

The democracies in Europe were able to manage their differences in a manner that were technically and politically efficient. However, in the Arab front, the Common Arab Market that was initiated even before the European Common Market has crippled by the undetermined well of the members. What is called now Great Arab Free Trade Area GAFTA is only a deformed entity that has no mechanism to commit its members.  Moreover the Absence of any people representation in the process of the unity projects, whether economic or political, makes it even difficult to have something sustainable.

Second, the Level of Development;

 Most of the European countries have high degree of human development. It is very crucial in the process of grouping to look at the levels of education, health, and public service. Looking at the Arab world the picture in many countries are bleak. The importance of this element can be illustrated in the technical and administrative expertise that was behind pushing the European Unity forward.

  

Thirdly, Economic Structural Discrepancies;

The imbalances in the economic structures amongst the Arab countries where some countries have per capita income 20 times more than other sister Arab country is a stumbling block. Additionally, the different political systems across the region makes it almost impossible to achieve any considerable sort of unity. How country as Qatar coordinates its monetary polices with Somalia or Mauritania?  

Moreover, the Arab states’ failure, which were not only in Arab unity but also in the battle of development, has put the whole region in peril. The Arab spring is the herald of new Era.