Understanding the Diversity in the Arab World

The idea of Arab unity has been a central motive in Arab politics since the declination of the Ottoman Empire. This idea emerged in the late 19th century, initially aiming at unifying the Arab countries in one single state. In the Arab hearts and minds, Arab unity is strongly felt, no matter if Arabs live in poor or rich countries, the basis of this unification is the common Arab heritage, language, culture, religion and history. The declared objectives of Arab unity were and still are to create unity, economic and social development, eventually enabling the Arabs to live in a good condition and to resist imperialism’s new ways and means and to achieve national security. Whereas for the Arabs, in my point of view the reason that stands behind the Arab’s failure in unifying themselves in one single state till today is that because they have the spirit of nationalism but merely with no good plans or strategies on how to gain their unity. The Arab World was and still is divided into twenty two countries. This diversity has political, economic and social implications on the Arab World, being part of the Third World countries, subject to those likely impacts. The objective of this paper is to examine the most important political, economical and social implications of diversity on the Arab countries, and to suggest appropriate policies that can be applied to reduce the negative impacts, and maximize the positive ones, on those countries.