For so many years, even decades, the Arab world has been in thrall to the idea of unity, the concept of one Arab community, from the Atlantic to the Gulf. The desirability of such a union aside, the reality has become steadily impractical. The border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen separates two culturally similar countries but they are poles apart in terms of income. That enormous disparity is reflected elsewhere in the region.
Yet while the idea of unity has persisted, the infrastructure has rarely followed. Leaders of Arab countries who came to power through coups guarded their power jealously and doled it out rarely, making the likelihood of them empowering a supranational institution like the Arab League unlikely.
And yet, as the league’s current secretary-general Dr Nabil Elaraby said in Abu Dhabi this week, the region needs a network that could respond to crises, whether they were political upheavals, natural disasters or disease pandemics. The case for such a network is unassailable. The extensive links between the countries of the Arab world mean that any disease could spread rapidly; they mean that crises like the Iraq war or the Syrian civil war spill over quickly; and they mean that natural disasters, such as floods or desertification, would be felt in neighbouring countries.
But if the case is unassailable, the political reality is fraught. Who would fund such a network? Where would it be based? By what right would this network be able to intervene in conflicts, such as the one in Syria?
But these questions can be resolved, with political will. The best way would be for a centrally-administered fund that each Arab country would pay into an amount worked out according to GDP. This fund could create a purely bureaucratic network, administered centrally, but only able to enter Arab countries with the consent of the respective government. In that way, even intractable conflicts could have a humanitarian lifeline. In today’s Syria, for example, the Assad regime might accept humanitarian corridors if established and organised by Arab peacekeepers.
Creating such a network could take many years – to build the infrastructure, train the personnel, organise the technology. That is why it should begin now. The financial resources exist in the region. We must not wait for disaster to strike before we secure the political will.
