May 06, 2015
It is tempting but
difficult to identify a single dynamic at the level of state and society that
explains the many different conflicts across the Arab world. We sure do not
lack candidates for the single answer that explains our messy region: A struggle
for the soul of Islam? The end of the modern Arab state? A great battle between
religiosity and secularism? The American pivot to Asia? Shia-Sunni and
Iranian-Saudi confrontations?
These are
all elements of the many complex political, social and ideological forces that
are shaking up our region, and many of them are deeply intertwined, which is
one reason why most conflict situations are so difficult to resolve. Ending the
fighting in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain or Libya, for example, requires grappling
with half a dozen other actors and issues beyond those countries’ borders. We
are probably doomed to see these wars play themselves out for some time, until
they are ended by mutual exhaustion, victory by one side, or loss of strategic
interest by external backers.
Perhaps
more useful than trying to identify a single phenomenon that explains the
problems facing Arab societies at the macro level of states, religions or
ideologies, would be an attempt to understand what drives human sentiments at
the individual and community level. The collective emotions of hundreds of
millions of individuals ultimately translate into political actions in the
public sphere, whether violent and criminal actions like forming aggressive
militias or peaceful and legitimate ones like voting in elections.
In this
context, the fighting we witness on the surface of many Arab societies is a
symptom of a much deeper problem that forms the heart of the dilemma that has
bedeviled the Arab world for much of its modern life over the past century or
so. This problem is the steadily expanded sense among many millions of ordinary
Arab and non-Arab men and women that they do not enjoy the protection of the
rule of law, and that those who exercise power—Arabs, Israelis, Iranians, Americans
and others—can get away with all kinds of terrible aggressions and crimes
against them with total impunity.
Our Arab
societies are brittle, volatile, violent and fragmenting in many cases because
there is no effective check on the exercise of power by indigenous or external
powers, which leaves your average Arab citizen totally exposed and helpless.
Not surprisingly, individuals who feel they are mistreated, exploited and
sometimes brutalized in their own societies, often by their own countrymen, eventually
fight back to try to protect themselves and their families.
We see
examples of the unchecked, unaccountable abuse of power all across the Arab
region, in many different forms, including outright wars and invasions
alongside racist discrimination and prejudicial policies by governments. The
most recent example in Egypt, for instance, sees the country’s supreme
administrative court issuing a ruling that effectively bans public sector
employees from going on strike to achieve their rights. Any worker who does
strike would be forced into retirement, according to the new law which also
said that, "Striking is a crime and obeying superiors an obligation.”
This may
seem like a minor incident, but in fact it reflects one of the most destructive
forces that have caused the political degeneration of most Arab societies: the
insistence by ruling political orders that are anchored in military systems
that the state knows best, and the citizens must merely obey. In this case the
Egyptian state’s decision deprives labor unions of one of their most important
roles in protecting the rights and wellbeing of workers. It also seems aimed at
curtailing the capacity of any independent unions to engage in political or
social activism during the country’s current erratic transition.
More
dramatic acts of unchecked exercise of power are the wars in Yemen, Syria, Iraq
and Libya, the reported use of chlorine gas and cluster bombs in Yemen and
Syria, civic confrontations in Bahrain, tens of thousands of political
prisoners in many Arab jails, and newly confirmed reports of Israeli killings
of civilians in last year’s Gaza assault. Arab citizens who withstand such
events over a long period of time eventually despair of seeing their suffering
ended through a credible political process. So many of them take up arms and
fight to protect themselves, which usually only leads to wider circles of
warfare and deeper national destruction.
Local
wars by militias or state armies, joint Arab military forces,
foreign-administered no-fly zones, breakaway autonomous regions and other
current developments across our region are all manifestation of the failure to
achieve stable societies that reflect the average citizen’s expectation that he
or she will be treated equitably by their own power structure. Until Arab
countries and their foreign patrons address this underlying failure, the
consequences of state collapse and active warfare will continue to plague us
for many years.
Rami G. Khouri is published
twice weekly in the Daily Star. He
was founding director and now senior policy fellow of the Issam Fares Institute
for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.
On Twitter: @ramikhouri.
Copyright ©2015 Rami G. Khouri -- distributed by Agence Global