A few days before the Arab Summit in Algeria, I do not want to sound disappointed when talking about the success or failure of these summits.
Nor do I want to put myself in the crosshairs of sloganeers and others who have played a key role in the apparent deterioration of much of our Arab countries, not just our Arab-Arab relations, and I am content to speak only in passing about the reality in which we and others live. We see no logic in denying it and trying to whitewash or distort its image in a world where facts cannot be hidden.
Before we delve into the recurring conclusions that precede every Arab summit, such as: what it will achieve and its benefits, and how some do it to question the effectiveness of the Arab League, joint Arab cooperation and other proposals that anger some and delight others, we must pause to look for more important proactive questions. Under these circumstances, is there even the possibility of a genuine collective Arab-Arab dialogue, whether that dialogue takes place in the context of an Arab summit or otherwise?
Is there an Arab agenda that can be agreed upon? The main thing is to implement it? The fact that should not make anyone angry is that at the moment there is no possibility of a collective Arab-Arab dialogue for the simple reason that there are many Arab countries whose sons cannot talk to each other, so how can one of these or two or parties in this divided state have a dialogue with other Arabs?
Moreover, there are disagreements between several Arab countries for reasons that we are not about to evaluate the positions. What is important here is that the disagreements already exist, not who is right and who is to blame in this scene.
One of the dilemmas of the Arab summits is that they are trapped, closed in on themselves or even restricted by others not to change anything in the list of Arab leaders or participants. Success and failure depend on mobilizing as many leaders as possible instead of achieving realistic results, discussing important issues and finding workable proposals and solutions.
My proof of this is that success and failure are determined before the meeting even opens. In a way, the final list of participants was a testimony to the success and failure of the Arab summits. This in itself is confusing.
It is true that the presence of leaders, especially leaders of influential Arab countries, at important international meetings is an important issue. But not so much that one can prove success and failure before the meeting. For us Arabs, it is important to have a summit with active participation of the heads of state and government.
Because for us, the indicator of success and failure of summits is not the participation or absence of the heads of state and government, regardless of the reasons, their logic and validity, but rather the weight of the host countries themselves or their limited ability to exert diplomatic influence. This, of course, is not the case.
This deteriorating reality of joint Arab action makes Arab summits a heavy host country guest. These summits may not welcome anyone in the days to come. Hosting is no longer just a matter of protocol and regulations.
It is enough if the next summit simply does not take place after years. That in itself is an indicator of how a collective cooperation mechanism can be effective or play a role in a complex world if it does not happen at all. We need to recognize that international and regional blocs suffer primarily in the formation of political positions.
There is no progress in international cooperation in collective action organizations, nor in the organizations that were originally created to serve as engines for economic and strategic cooperation rather than to mobilize political and other positions. This does not necessarily mean that politics must be separated from economics, because that is certainly not the case.
But work is being done, to the extent possible, to prioritize the latter over the former.
We all followed the positions of countries and heads of state at the recent BRICS summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and saw how a major regional power like India plays an influential role in a group that also includes Russia and China and is also a member of a quadrilateral alliance. But which also includes the US. The dilemma of Arab summits is not limited to the above.
There are many dilemmas, institutional and non-institutional, and it takes time to discuss them, and our comfort is that everyone knows them. But above all, the Arab summits do not besiege themselves only in the mobilization of participants, as I said earlier.
But also in the mobilization of positions, without taking into account the state of fatigue that Arab societies are tired of thinking about these positions unsuccessfully. The UAE has long been trying to prioritize the economic aspect of the joint Arab action mechanisms. But the scourge of these mechanisms is that they mobilize the files so much that it is difficult to achieve anything from them.
The issues crowd out and overwhelm each other. The rest is common knowledge. The dilemma is not an Arab disagreement as some claim.
Not all positions of the members of the regional blocs are equal, nor can they be. But the lesson is that there are mechanisms to deal with differences and even disagreements. I don’t want to look hopeless or disappointed.
But acknowledging a problem is always part of a successful plan to solve it, and most of us Arabs live in denial of our reality. When we talk about this reality, we are confronted with preconceived accusations of betrayal and try to justify ourselves, even though no one takes responsibility for the reality. We have to look around.
We need to see how the world is changing at an accelerated pace, we need to observe the changes that are shaping the post-Ukrainian world, we need to act realistically and throw overboard the harsh templates and slogans.
We must realize that the interests of states and peoples are the first and fundamental driving force – and I do not say the only one – of international relations, not emotions, history, common destiny and other constructive phrases and formulations, the meaning of which no one who repeats them can explain, if they make any sense at all.
