In a region that is witnessing successive political crises, suffering from an arms race, civil wars, refugee displacement, sectarian divisions, disputes over borders and natural resources, and the occupation of territories, collective action becomes a necessity imposed by the mutual need between states to preserve regional security and confront shared threats. However, the Arab reality presents a different picture, marked by weaknesses in the infrastructure needed to address conflicts at various stages and by the absence of a collective framework to confront regional security threats.
While many international organizations and regional entities have built their capabilities to address the challenges posed by various crises, Arab states have not developed the collective capacities needed to address regional conflicts effectively.
The region, which witnesses the highest proportion of armed conflicts in the world, lacks any institutional framework that would enable it to address indicators before crises break out, manage them efficiently once they occur, or restore matters to their previous state after they end. Rather, many crises and armed conflicts in our region have ended without our being able to work collectively to assess needs in those countries or to assist them institutionally in recovery and reconstruction.
The Available Scope of Arab Collective Action
There have been several attempts that did not succeed, since the beginning of joint Arab action, to establish frameworks for collective action to deal with issues and conflicts that threaten Arab national security, from the Joint Arab Defense Agreement to the Egyptian initiative in 2015 to build a joint Arab force, as well as attempts to establish an Arab Peace and Security Council and a unified Arab network for early warning and crisis response. However, the Arab political reality and the divergence of states’ positions on most regional issues clearly indicate that, within this context, there is no possibility of cooperation based on the exchange of information, joint assessments of situations, or the adoption of unified political and military positions. It is sufficient to take a careful look at the positions of Arab states regarding the conflicts in Yemen, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Gaza, and Lebanon to realize that any attempt to establish a framework for collective political and military action in the region at present is not feasible.
From this perspective, Arab collective action in peacebuilding may be the most feasible at the present stage, as its activities are technical in nature and usually begin after the end of armed conflicts to assist affected states in recovery and rebuilding institutions destroyed during times of war.
A Collective Framework for Peacebuilding
Peacebuilding is a broad set of activities and measures undertaken to rebuild societies that have experienced armed conflict and achieve stability within them. These activities include multiple aspects such as preventing the recurrence of conflicts and supporting ceasefires, assisting transitional governments, reconciliation and transitional justice, rebuilding security, military, and judicial institutions, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs, strengthening the rule of law and supporting elections, economic recovery and development activities, humanitarian assistance, social and cultural reconstruction, and involving civil society in decision-making.
However, the application of peacebuilding activities differs from one country to another, depending on each state’s needs in the post-conflict phase, in which a program tailored to the country is designed and the appropriate activities selected from the list.
The absence of Arab states from peacebuilding activities in the region has led the United Nations, the European Union, and the African Union to play the primary role in assisting Arab states in the post-conflict stage. Nevertheless, peacebuilding operations face major challenges, including insufficient funding due to some member states’ failure to pay their contributions, which forces them to scale back operations and limits their ability to protect civilians. This situation is expected to worsen after the U.S. administration decides to cancel its contributions to the United Nations peacekeeping budget, which accounts for about 27% of the total budget. UN missions also suffer from a shortage of qualified and trained human resources in peacebuilding and conflict resolution, which undermines the effectiveness of interventions in regional conflicts.
Accordingly, there is a need for those who support and complement the United Nations’ peacebuilding efforts. UN missions in the region cannot alone carry out all the required activities, and they often call for a regional partner that can support the implementation of some activities. By following the reports of the UN Secretary-General and the Peacebuilding Commission, one can realize the extent of the challenges facing peacebuilding activities and their need for continuous support.
Based on this, there appears to be a pressing need to develop a collective Arab framework in the field of peacebuilding operations to support the efforts of the United Nations and to build on the deep knowledge of the local context of conflicts, which would lead to an integration of expertise between the international and regional levels. There have been attempts in the past to implement this type of cooperation during the Syrian crisis in 2012, through the appointment of a joint United Nations-League of Arab States envoy, as well as through the launch of joint initiatives to support stability in Libya.
Proposed Steps
However, establishing this proposed Arab framework to support countries in the region after the end of armed conflicts requires taking several gradual steps. In this regard, the following can be proposed:
- Conducting a preliminary dialogue and an initial survey to identify the countries that support the idea and their observations before presenting the issue formally through the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States or through one of the member states in the ministerial council.
- Holding meetings with experts from Arab states to determine the scope and fields of cooperation in peacebuilding, with cooperation initially limited to training, the exchange of expertise, and the establishment of a database of experts.
- Developing protocols for cooperation with various international organizations with experience in peacebuilding to build the institutional and operational capacities of Arab states, and then moving to a stage of partnership in implementing technical activities in one of the conflict areas.
- Calling on Arab states to establish specialized centers for peacebuilding activities and linking them to one another. Egypt can play a pioneering role in this regard by leveraging the expertise of the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding, and by building on its partnerships and training programs to support the countries of the region.
There is no doubt that this work may face some challenges due to the differences in technical and financial capacities among Arab states. However, this represents a natural stage in collective work that can be overcome by drawing on the experiences of organizations that preceded us in this field.
