It is a difficult time to be an Arab state. Saddam Hussein fell more quickly than expected, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has continued to fester. A growing population and a stagnant economy makes the future appear ominous for the region. Sadly, the Middle East has no regional organization to turn to for help. The once lauded forum of pan-Arabism, the League of Arab States (LAS), is impotent, lacking the consensus and legitimacy to take action. Yet as the only regional body of its kind in the Middle East, the League of Arab States needs to pursue reform based on economic integration to regain influence in international and Middle Eastern politics.

LAS no longer is (if it ever was) seen as a bargaining partner by the United States and the United Nations. Its external image is that of a group of unelected dictators who cannot form a consensus or take action on pertinent issues. While the LAS has tried to promote an Arab opinion on the world stage, its attempts have been largely ignored. The UN Security Council and General Assembly have largely disregarded LAS Secretary-General Amr Musa’s call to resume the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, protect Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, and condemn the Israeli bombing of Syria. The peace process remains stalled, Arafat is vulnerable, and Israel has yet to be criticized.

The LAS has also attempted, but failed, to sway international decisions regarding Iraq. After re-accepting Iraq as a member-state, the LAS demanded that sovereignty be transferred quickly from the United States through a constitutional convention and free elections. However, LAS demands for democratic transition in Iraq have been dismissed as hypocritical since none of the LAS member-states have democratically elected governments. As a result, the LAS had little involvement in the recent passing of an Iraqi reconstruction timeline by the United Nations.

The LAS is able to articulate its interests, but lacks the international respect necessary to make its voice heard because it is not respected by its own members. Middle Eastern belief in the LAS has waned gradually but plummeted most dramatically after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Paralyzed by division, the LAS failed to reach a consensus as LAS member Iraq attacked fellow member Kuwait. It took international intervention to resolve a conflict that should have been determined internally. Member-states began to turn to other bodies, such as the United Nations, to solve problems, instead of to the LAS. Consequently, little substantive action has taken place through the LAS during the past few years. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has even called for his country to leave the LAS, declaring, “There is no benefit [in belonging to] the Arabs’ dull world, which is careless of the future.”

Luckily, however, the LAS recognizes its current irrelevancy. Member-states led by Egypt have proposed organizational reforms, focusing on a switch to a majority-based voting system. Under Article VII of the current LAS Charter, states are only obligated to enforce an act of the LAS if they themselves agree to it, an arrangement that has led to toothless resolutions. The LAS must also recommit itself to civil dialogue. The acrid nature of member discourse perpetuates negative stereotypes of ineffectiveness.

In addition to political reform, the future of the LAS must be laid on economic cooperation. The UN Population Fund reports that the population of the Arab world is expected to double in the next 30 years, while the region has a lower economic growth rate than Africa according to the UN Economic and Social Committee of Western Asia. With a collective unemployment rate of 19.4 percent, the economic future of the Middle East is bleak. There have been calls for the region to form an economic bloc or free trade zone to remedy the situation, but no group has stepped forward. This vacuum allows the LAS to redefine itself through economic cooperation, turning into an Arab version of the European Union. The LAS is the only regional organization capable of organizing an economic group; it has already acknowledged the impending Arab economic crisis and began to promote economic growth by hosting a US-Middle East trade forum in Detroit in September 2002. Yet the organization must take the next step of formally pushing for integration; while Saudi Arabia has outlined a similar idea, the LAS has yet to take an active stance. An economic base coupled with a politically united voice could be the solution to the current woes of the LAS.

A transition of this nature will not be easy. However, the LAS currently lacks respect and will eventually have to face the economic problems of the region. It thus has nothing to lose by attempting reform on the basis of economic cooperation and political unity. In March 2004, the LAS summit in Tunis, Tunisia, will be crucial in determining the future of the organization. The onus is on the LAS to set aside past problems and to become an economic and political institution to which Arabs, and the world, can turn.