Arab integration

Arab integration, efforts aimed at achieving closer cooperation and assimilation between different Arab countries and subregions.

Depending on the context in which the concept is used, integration could be meant as political, economic, or institutional. The term has been used in various frameworks, and its meaning has evolved and shifted over time. Originally employed as part of a larger project aimed at unifying the numerous Arab countries into a single Arab nation, Arab integration has also been discussed in strictly economic terms. When studied in this perspective, it is associated with efforts by Arab countries to liberalize their economies and connect with global markets.

Pan-Arab conceptions of Arab integration

Arab integration was first employed within the discourse of Arab nationalism and parallel to the evolution of the Arab state system in the aftermath of World War II. The Arab nationalist (or Pan-Arab) ideology posited that the multitude of Arab states represents a coherent historical and political national community and that this nation should be realized within a unified Arab state. Following from that, Arab nationalists argued that the Arab nation is a natural unit that was artificially divided into unsustainable entities and that political and economic development can only be achieved through the rapprochement, cooperation, and, ultimately, unification of those states. The Arab League was founded in 1945 as a tool for the realization of Arab integration and unity, even though in practice it was paralyzed by political divisions and institutional deficiencies. Furthermore, from the 1950s through the ’70s, several attempts were made to unify two or more Arab countries, most of which were discontinued. The most famous of those endeavours was the formation of the United Arab Republic, a political union between Egypt and Syria that lasted from 1958 to 1961. Other attempted unifications occurred between Libya and Egypt, Egypt and Sudan, and Jordan and Iraq.

In the late 1960s the idea of Arab unity through political fusion was mostly abandoned as an immediate goal, and new forms of Arab regional integration were initiated. This included the establishment of institutions promoting inter-Arab trade, cultural exchange, common industrial projects, common educational policies, and military cooperation. In addition, Arab states signed many bilateral agreements and formed subregional organizations to facilitate trade and political cooperation. The most notable of those organizations were the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Arab Maghreb Union, the Arab Common Market, and the Arab Organization for Industrialization.

The idea behind those projects was to further economic and political integration within the system of existing Arab states in the hope of achieving greater political weight on the world scene and accomplishing economic objectives (that individual Arab states might not be able to realize). The rhetoric of Pan-Arabism was not completely divorced from such attempts, and many of those institutions had the stated goal of achieving higher degrees of rapprochement and complementarity between different Arab states, which would eventually pave the way for Arab unity.

This latter notion of Arab integration differed from the traditional Arab nationalist model in several respects. First, it recognized the Arab state system and accorded a greater importance to the Arab states in the process of Arab integration, whereas the orthodox Pan-Arab discourse viewed those entities as illegitimate colonial constructs and an obstacle to Arab rapprochement. Second, this notion implied a belief in an incremental route to Arab integration based on institutional cooperation that was greatly influenced by the experience of the European Community and the building of a common European market. Conversely, the orthodox nationalist view favoured a more direct approach to Arab unity inspired by European cases of national unification in the late 19th century (especially those of Germany and Italy). Finally, the more recent notion of Arab integration believed in cooperation being designed and effectuated on the level of state bureaucracies and diplomatic agreements, whereas the Arab nationalist perspective believed in the promotion of Arab integration through mass movements and party politics.

Despite the multitude of institutions designed to promote Arab integration, autarkic economic policies and political differences kept the levels of Arab cooperation and trade at a minimum. Trade barriers were rarely removed, and the movement of people and goods between Arab states was often restricted. Furthermore, the Persian Gulf War of 1990–91 created deeper political divisions among the Arab countries and marginalized the Arab nationalist discourse. So far, inter-Arab regional trade remained a small proportion of the total trade activities of Arab countries.

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Arab integration and globalization

Since the mid-1990s the concept of Arab integration has been revived within a different context. The wave of economic liberalization initiated by several Arab states and supported by international lending institutions pushed Arab economies to lift trade barriers and liberalize monetary policies. In tandem with those changes in economic governance, international agencies—specifically the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)—pushed for greater regional integration and trade as a step toward economic integration on the global level.

The market-oriented approach views regional integration as a necessary element for the creation of trading blocs that would allow individual countries to enter the global economy better-prepared and under more favourable terms. Citing the experiences of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and Mercosur (Common Market of the South), the proponents of regionalization see those blocs as useful tools for fostering the movement of capital and labour within regions, which would lead to lower poverty rates and the building of internationally competitive institutions.

Similarly, several regional institutions were created to promote trade among Arab countries under the supervision and support of international agencies, most significantly the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA), which removed tariff and customs barriers between Arab countries and was promoted as an essential tool to prepare for the introduction of Arab states into the World Trade Organization and the Euro-Med partnership.