Is a Pan-Arab Reform Possible?
Nassif Hitti asks, “Will the Arab League be able to take the road of pan-Arab economic cooperation, institutional reform and modernization?”
It was expected that the Syrian crisis would dominate the 24th session of the Arab League summit held in Doha, Qatar. It is currently the most critical issue, with severe unpredictable repercussions for the Middle East and also those external actors with strategic interests in the region.
It was also expected that the Palestinian question would be the permanent core issue; if not at the level of active policy, then at least at the level of Arab political culture and identity.
However other non-burning issues, each with strategic long-term implications for the Arab world, were also at the top of the agenda. In and of itself, this does not guarantee serious or practical results. Nevertheless, their new context encouraged results-oriented actions.
These issues can be divided under two subheadings. The first and most important has to do with economic cooperation and integration within the Arab world in the wake of the third Arab economic summit held in Riyadh. In the past, the economic cooperation variable has been addressed from an ideological or even sloganeering pan-Arab perspective, devoid of any serious content or commitment. In this summit we saw, among other things, a resolution calling for investment in the agricultural sector due to food vulnerability and shortage of production in the Arab world. Indeed, the food import bill and a much neglected agricultural sector were key triggers for the Arab revolutions.
