The Arab League is a regional organization that was founded on March 22, 1945.
The league's function is to promote political cooperation among it's member states, and to
deal with disputes or any breaches of peace in the region. The league's official name is the
League of Arab States. The founding members of the league are: Egypt, Syria, Saudi
Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, and Yemen. Membership in the League was later extended to
Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia,
Southern Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. The headquarters of the
League is located in Cairo, and it is run by a secretary general which is appointed by the
league members.
The work of any international organization which attempts to promote peace, and
political cooperation is usually confronted by several failures. However, in the case of the
Arab League it has been evident that it is unable to sustain the peace within the region or
aid in any political cooperation between the member states. The Gulf War could be said
to be a test to the power of the Arab League and it's presumed cooperation and handling
problems strategies. The war started off by the invasion of Kuwait by it's neighbor Iraq,
both are member states in the Arab League. When the war started the status of the
League at the time was murky. This could have been largely due to that all agreements
are held in secret talks and through conversations held outside regular meetings.
Furthermore, the activities of the League are unknown and usually misunderstood by the
outside world, due to the organization has been eager to secure publicity for it's activities.
It is said that one of the main reasons that the governments of the Arab states can't
unite, is due to the imbalance of wealth, population and military power in the region (the
economist 25). Under the articles of the Arab League, it was decided that the members of
the