The Arab Mega-State Emerges

The problem is not forming the nation...is that nation lasting more than a week before internal pressure sink it

Good point. And in today's atmosphere there would be not way to get the Sunnis and Shiites together. But back in the "Arab nationalism" days it might work at least for a while. The leadership could invoke common external enemies (Israel, the West) and try to use that as a glue to hold things together.
 
A gigantic Arab socialist megastate would be taken down by the CIA and other intelligence agencies as soon as possible. Making such a state come together is difficult—making it stick is almost ASB IMO.
 
Good point. And in today's atmosphere there would be not way to get the Sunnis and Shiites together. But back in the "Arab nationalism" days it might work at least for a while. The leadership could invoke common external enemies (Israel, the West) and try to use that as a glue to hold things together.

Forget Sunnis and Shiites, in the 60's - 70's, Egyptian and Syrian union lasted a couple of years as both side were not able to work together...or better the Egyptian decided that they were the head honchos but the Syrian had a different opinion; add at this mix, Jordans, Iraquis...and other leaders and you see that any big version of the RAU will be quickly non functional.
Look at the EU, as a templates, any 'quick scheme' it's basically destinated to fail after some years
 
Forget Sunnis and Shiites, in the 60's - 70's, Egyptian and Syrian union lasted a couple of years as both side were not able to work together...or better the Egyptian decided that they were the head honchos but the Syrian had a different opinion; add at this mix, Jordans, Iraquis...and other leaders and you see that any big version of the RAU will be quickly non functional.
Look at the EU, as a templates, any 'quick scheme' it's basically destinated to fail after some years
Exactly. I dunno where people get the idea that “The Arabs” are some sort of cookie-cutter clones with only slight differences in religion and moustaches.
Its like someone handwaving into existence a United European Superstate where >90% of the economy is based on pooling export revenues and then having a bunch of autocratic leaders carving it up among their followers. And then assuming it will all work because they are after all Europeans with a shared Christian heritage.

Libyans and Saudis and Kuwaitis are going to just sit there watching the revenues from THEIR oil being poured into the slums of Cairo, and get nothing in return except a warm nationalist glow? Proper desert Arabs sharing not just their money but leadership with flea-bitten bazaar dwellers and Shi’a dogs? Funds going not into feeding the most historic and populous countries in the Middle East but instead building roads and power lines in the empty desert for a handful of uneducated nomads who happened to inherit oilfields from the Turks/French/British? The number of fracture lines are endless, which is why no-one has ever taken it further than some empty political posturing.
 
Exactly. I dunno where people get the idea that “The Arabs” are some sort of cookie-cutter clones with only slight differences in religion and moustaches.
Its like someone handwaving into existence a United European Superstate where >90% of the economy is based on pooling export revenues and then having a bunch of autocratic leaders carving it up among their followers. And then assuming it will all work because they are after all Europeans with a shared Christian heritage.

Libyans and Saudis and Kuwaitis are going to just sit there watching the revenues from THEIR oil being poured into the slums of Cairo, and get nothing in return except a warm nationalist glow? Proper desert Arabs sharing not just their money but leadership with flea-bitten bazaar dwellers and Shi’a dogs? Funds going not into feeding the most historic and populous countries in the Middle East but instead building roads and power lines in the empty desert for a handful of uneducated nomads who happened to inherit oilfields from the Turks/French/British? The number of fracture lines are endless, which is why no-one has ever taken it further than some empty political posturing.

They do have a common language and a common sense of being "Arabs" - before 1870, people could point to all sorts of reasons that Italy and Germany would not become unified nations. And the Arabs are almost all Muslims. But you are correct that there are fissures. What unified Germany was the Franco-Prussian War. Perhaps, a war of all the Arab states against Israel might pull them together.
 
They do have a common language and a common sense of being "Arabs" - before 1870, people could point to all sorts of reasons that Italy and Germany would not become unified nations. And the Arabs are almost all Muslims. But you are correct that there are fissures. What unified Germany was the Franco-Prussian War. Perhaps, a war of all the Arab states against Israel might pull them together.
Several wars against Israel have signally failed to develop much unity between Egypt, Syria and Iraq. I am personally deeply sceptical about the equivalence of two relatively homogenous European states covering very small territories to the sort of enormous political construct which is being proposed.
A pan-Arab republic is more analogous to rolling up everything from Wallonia to East Prussia to the North Cape under the heading “Christian and Germanic, never mind all those old wars, they’ll be fine”. Except larger, more culturally diverse, and with enormously shakier economic underpinnings. And given that relations among the branches of Islam are generally analogous to Catholic/Protestant/orthodox ones (I.e. generally adversarial, catalysed by the prescence of politics to venomous with outbreaks of murderous) I think the whole concept of Islam as a unifying balm is massively optimistic.
Sure it might work as a call to unification, or as a rallying cry while there is a war on against a Jewish or Christian state. But as soon as normal business resumes and people start discussing which tribes, nationalities and denominations are getting which roles in the administration and which payouts of oil revenue then the wheels will start getting very wobbly indeed.
 
While the Pan-Arab state is unlikely, it is interesting to reflect on its potential. The Arab role in world politics would be dramatically different and enormously enhanced if the oil wealth of Libya, the Saudis, the Gulf States, and Iraq were to be concentrated in one state. The money generated by the oil could be used by the more advanced Egyptian society to move forward in technology. They would be a major "player" on the world scene rather than a collection of relatively small timers.
 
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