Was the Arab League built to fail on purpose?
Two political scientists looked at the Arab League's record and concluded its weakness was a feature, not a bug. Leaders praised Arab unity to shore up their legitimacy at home, they argued, while quietly fearing any real unity that might limit their own power. The rules reflect exactly that tension.
The League of Arab States was founded in Cairo on 22 March 1945, after the Alexandria Protocol of the previous year. Seven states signed on at first, among them Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria, and the headquarters was Cairo's Boustan Palace. Membership has since grown to 22, including three countries that are not Arab: Comoros, Djibouti and Somalia.
Its charter speaks of drawing members closer, coordinating their work, protecting their independence and considering Arab affairs in general. The voting rule is telling. Every member gets one vote in the Council, but a decision binds only the states that supported it, so no government can be forced into anything. Michael Barnett and Etel Solingen described the result as a relatively low level of cooperation and argued the design deliberately avoided integration that might weaken rulers at home.
Still, the League has done more than talk. It has served as a place to settle disputes between members and helped contain conflicts such as the Lebanon crisis of 1958. Agencies such as ALECSO, its educational, cultural and scientific arm, and the Council of Arab Economic Unity run programmes across the region. A defence and economic cooperation pact signed on 13 April 1950 committed signatories to coordinate military measures, a common market followed in 1965, and in the early 1970s the Economic Council proposed Joint Arab Chambers of Commerce to boost trade with major partners abroad.
Security cooperation resurfaced in March 2015, when the Secretary General announced a Joint Arab Force aimed at extremism and other threats. Joining is voluntary, and the force acts only when a member asks for it, another echo of the League's cautious respect for sovereignty.
Source: Arab League
