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Working Paper no. 45 -Regional and Global Axes of Conflict -
NOTHING BUT FAILURE? THE ARAB LEAGUE AND THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL AS MEDIATORS IN MIDDLE EASTERN CONFLICTS Marco Pinfari
London School of Economics and Political Science
March 2009
Crisis States Working Papers Series No.2
ISSN 1749-1797 (print) ISSN 1749-1800 (online)
Copyright © M. Pinfari, 2009
Crisis States Research Centre
Nothing but Failure? The Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council as Mediators in Middle Eastern Conflicts
Marco Pinfari International Relations Department London School of Economics and Political Science
Introduction In April 1945 the founding members of the United Nations met in San Francisco to draft the UN Charter and discuss the foundations of the new world order. While the framework of the Charter is primarily global in character, a series of articles included in Chapter VIII encourage the development of ‘regional arrangements’, one of whose major tasks is to ‘achieve pacific settlements of local disputes’ (Article 52). In March 1945, one month before the San Francisco conference was convened, one such ‘regional arrangement’ received the final endorsement from a group of six founding states (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt). The Arab League, the oldest functioning regional organisation, has been conceived since its foundation as part of a broad and ambitious political project that could have led, at least in the intentions of some of its supporters, to the creation of a single Arab state in the Middle East. As a first step towards this final goal, the member states rejected the ‘recourse of force for the settlement of disputes’ between them. The Council of the League was from its inception designated as the provider of ‘good offices’ for mediating disputes that could have led to the use of force, and as the forum in which acts of ‘aggressions’ should be addressed. Yet, since 1945 the Middle East has surely not been immune
NOTHING BUT FAILURE? THE ARAB LEAGUE AND THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL AS MEDIATORS IN MIDDLE EASTERN CONFLICTS Marco Pinfari
London School of Economics and Political Science
March 2009
Crisis States Working Papers Series No.2
ISSN 1749-1797 (print) ISSN 1749-1800 (online)
Copyright © M. Pinfari, 2009
Crisis States Research Centre
Nothing but Failure? The Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council as Mediators in Middle Eastern Conflicts
Marco Pinfari International Relations Department London School of Economics and Political Science
Introduction In April 1945 the founding members of the United Nations met in San Francisco to draft the UN Charter and discuss the foundations of the new world order. While the framework of the Charter is primarily global in character, a series of articles included in Chapter VIII encourage the development of ‘regional arrangements’, one of whose major tasks is to ‘achieve pacific settlements of local disputes’ (Article 52). In March 1945, one month before the San Francisco conference was convened, one such ‘regional arrangement’ received the final endorsement from a group of six founding states (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt). The Arab League, the oldest functioning regional organisation, has been conceived since its foundation as part of a broad and ambitious political project that could have led, at least in the intentions of some of its supporters, to the creation of a single Arab state in the Middle East. As a first step towards this final goal, the member states rejected the ‘recourse of force for the settlement of disputes’ between them. The Council of the League was from its inception designated as the provider of ‘good offices’ for mediating disputes that could have led to the use of force, and as the forum in which acts of ‘aggressions’ should be addressed. Yet, since 1945 the Middle East has surely not been immune