One Arab World

Before you start please read the previous post "Arab Nationalism: A Concise History by Mr. Kirk H. Sowell"

I have difficulty with Kirks opening line "Nationalism is an invention of the modern world, and a European invention, later exported around the world.", unless "Nationalism", as he puts it, is rooted in unification. I also do not believe Pan Arabism should be considered a synonym for Arab Nationalism. The world "nationalism" is too closely associated with patriotism. That is not what Pan Arabism is about. Pan Arabism is nothing more than a necessity to the economic, political, and cultural survival of the Arab People in an increasingly competitive world.

To be clear I believe Pan Arabism should be a term meant to reflect "The geopolitical unification of what is widely understood as "The Arab World" into an entity with a united front"

This concept is rooted in actions that date back much farther than the Treaty of Westphalia. This concept is rooted in two things. The first is the innate alliance of man in the face of a common threat. The second; the natural growth of mans common aspirations throughout history, or rather the growth of what the term "common" delineates. Hand in hand they have both lead to the swelling of sovereignty, tolerance, and the definition of ethnicity, or whatever the binding factor is.

The progression has gone from two families of nomads, to villages, to city-states, to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt or the alliance of the ancient Greeks. The progression then continued into conquests of foreign lands to the apex of the Roman Empire. It moved onward to imperialism, colonialism, and federations. Then the word "United" started cropping up. There was a "U" in everything; UN, US, EU. We have reached the point in history were we are dealing with Blocs.

Are we headed to a unified world with common aspersions and goals? Are we headed towards what the kids at Harvard Sq. are handing out fliers for? Global Socialism? Let us not forget the first motivating factor, so until the aliens invade, I wouldn't hold your breath. I'm getting off track, back to business.

Size does matter. Look at our success stories (as rare as they are), Dubai for example. As I am sure many of you know the city state of Dubai an emirate of the United Arab Emirates (there's that word again) is setting up for regional economic and touristic dominance (something very humbling for an Egyptian to write.) None the less, how do you suppose it will fare, even under the best case scenario, against another up and coming economy… say China?

Every Arab country has an enormous amount of problems. From poverty, to lack of education, resources (we lack what we need and we have too much of what everyone else would "kill" for) and finance. We are further away than most think. The state of Massachusetts spends almost ten times more in state spending than all of Egypt does. Even if these problems are miraculously altered we would still not have enough for self determination. We would still be prone to bullying and, hence, political instability. In our region "political instability" is just another way of saying terrorism.

Now consider this as a microcosm. Sudan has enough farm land, if properly irrigated to feed all of Egypt. Egypt, coincidentally, as enough man power and technical skill to irrigate Sudan. The billions of savings on Tushka? Priceless. (Sorry it won't happen again)

Now look once again at our main problems as Arab countries; poverty, lack of education, resources, and finance? If you look at the Arab world at whole you'll see we have enough resources, finance, and technical skill to handle our poverty and lack of education.

Egypt is the number one importer of wheat in the world. Iraq has the potential to become the number nine exporter of wheat by displacing neighboring Turkey for the position. The number of foreign (i.e. Indian or South Asian) employees the Gulf countries hire is more than the total unemployment number in the majority of the north African counties combined.   

Beyond the economic restructuring is the political ramifications. For example, had the Arab world acted on a unified front by not allowing the United States to use their bases and airspace there would probably not have been an Iraq war. Or perhaps it would have been a necessary internal removal of a corrupt government. Either way it would have saved thousands of lives, our dignity, and our sovereignty.

We are moving forward though. Throughout history change was hard to see coming. Steps like the GCC, the Egyptian-Jordanian pipeline, and the Arab League of Nations, however small, inconsistent, and strained, are steps none the less. The reform that is sweeping the Arab world, brought about by better or worse, will hopefully lay the foundation for change.

As we find ourselves once again on the verge of a paradigm shift let us work hard, and together, to avoid another generation or two of humiliation.

Karim Elsahy