Arab World: Identity Crisis | Export of Democracy | Western Intervention
Arab Nations in the early 60’s and in 70’s were enjoying some of the fastest growing economies in the world. They were able to adapt and were committed to following western model of trade and policies, but the rapidly growing population, unemployment, slow human resource development and declining wages made them move away from the track. The situation got worse during the 1990’s and 2000’s, when the globalization and export of democracy came into the picture, the impact of which was highly acute and created chaos everywhere. On the other hand, western forces had been trying greatly to do the Geo-political engineering of the region to establish their hegemony, as a result, the whole region had been held under the socioeconomic and political crisis which causes heightening mistrust among the nations. They lack strategic coordination and cooperation. They are choosing the path of conflict and trouble instead of peace.
Globalization has led the region towards economic decline rather than growth. Conservative forces and some of the lawmakers in the region repel the framework of the global economy. Ultra-nationalism took over the region which diminished Arab interest to integrate with the global economy. It was essential for them to avoid the economic and social chaos, instead, they fear that the redefined concept of political, economic and social development will undermine their culture and economy. Arab is divided into the blocks; the non-oil nation and oil nation. The fortune of the Arab economy is totally depending on the oil market. During the oil boom, economic growth of the region was among the highest in the world; development was rapid, unemployment was non-existent, the social payoff was enormous, poverty was down and human development index was up. But the drop in the oil prices in the 1980’s and subsequent collapse of the major economy in the Arab world had impacted enormously. Unemployment had gone up to 20 percent. The population growth rate is profoundly alarming. The demographic projection shows the Arab population would be reaching 459 million in 2020. According to the world employment report, only 37 percent of the workforce is participating in Egypt, 29 percent in Jordon, 32 percent in Saudi Arabia and 37 percent in Kuwait.
An absence of Non-oil export has led this region towards indefinite economic crisis, the finite natural resources are exploiting with unsustainable rate, and the total volume of export of non-oil product is too small actually smaller than the exports of Finland. The oil export is now falling as the world is now moving towards to attain sustainability and they are now relying on renewable sources of energy. Non-Arab nations have also opened their own gas field. Russia and Iran have aggressively increased their oil and gas extraction.
Export of western democracy has radicalized the Arab world. Democracy invaded the region and killed millions of innocent. The region was far stable without democracy. It was not the call of Arab people. It was forcefully implemented against the will of the people. Dictator/monarch regime was convincingly ruling the region. It was far better place than today. The demonstration and protest erupted all over the Middle East and North Africa, and Tunisian revolution propagated to Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria, both violent and non-violent demonstrations, protests, riots, coups and civil wars engulf the region. It was well supported by the west and its media, their intention was amazing but the execution was not well accessed. The USA and its ally fuel the situation, at the same time they maintained a warm relationship with dictator/monarch in the region, They armed the rebel against the establishment, at the same time, they did billions of dollar defense deal to protect the establishment. The existing government flamed the sectarian violence to demolish the democratic aspiration of the people. USA and its ally seemed to be directionless and looked as if contradicting their own decisions. World superpower was never on the same page. Russia did never play a constructive role, and they disrupted the situation in Syria. USA and Britain intervention in Iraq was quite irresponsible, which created ISIS and ISIL. USA and ally are fighting against ISIS in Iraq, but they are supporting them in Syria. It looks now they are nervous and has no plan to tackle the current scenario. They are losing in Syria to Assad regime and in Iraq to Iran.
A struggle is still going on in the Middle East, leadership has changed in most of the nations and regimes were held accountable for conflict. Meanwhile, Power vacuum experienced throughout the Arab world, a conflict between the religious elite and pro-democracy group started in all Muslim-majority states. Arab spring has only been succeeded in the Tunisia where the constitutional democratic governance was established.
Identity crisis is another reason for the conflict in the Arab world, as they failed to establish a fair federal structure. Though the people of the Middle East are differentiated from each other by their national identity, yet ethnics and religious identity are also important for them. They have a strong sense of nationalism, and they want autonomy for culture and religious believe. Though most of them have not able to realize their aspiration for state or for autonomy, these lingering frustrations are coming out as conflict periodically.
