In a period where the whole Arab world is going through uprisings and revolutions, and the world in general is taking a different direction away from the New World Order introduced by George Bush the father, adding to that the world economic power, the collapse of the Euro and the Chinese economic development I decided to write this article and introduce a NEW FOREIGN POLICY that has to applied in Lebanon.
Bear in mind that the foreign policy that I am going to talk about will not be applied right now, but rather when the new leadership takes place at the time where one leader only will be ruling Lebanon uniting the country under his rule and justice.
This policy will be using the philosophy of as close is the country as strong the relations are, the policy will make sure that all the neighboring countries will have strong unbreakable bonds which will provide the country with security and prosperity with the exception of Israel, which has a special case I will be talking about in the last article where I will explain some intensions and actions required to deal with this sensitive issue.
Arab League:
The reason why I separated Syria from the Arab-League is because if the special status between Lebanon and Syria which will affect the relation between Lebanon and the other Arab countries.
Now let us have a look at the Arab world, Lebanon will divide it into three parts: Arab Peninsula, Al Maghreb Al Arabi (North Africa), Iraq and Jordan.
As I emphasized before, economic ties would be strong enough to make the Arabs overcome their political conflicts and from the same theory my idea about Lebanese-Syrian relations came.
I will give an example of the Gulf Cooperation Council which came to existence because of the same interest of the 6 countries (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Oman). They became an economic unit aiming to protect Sunni Kingdoms in Arabia. Therefore, economy is the strongest tie that can link them and prevent foreign intervention. And their case is successful even though it is not as strong as the EU.
In addition, soon enough after some dictatorships collapse in North Africa an Idea of North African unity will see the light even though it might not be as strong as other Arabic unities. However, this will depend how successful Lebanon and Syria will turn in their economic unity. In case Lebanon and Syria made a very strong economy, more countries will be willing to join which will turn very positively for Lebanon. And another will try to form their own.
To be clear from the beginning, Lebanon will maintain its very strong ties with the Arab League both for political and economic reasons. Politically, Lebanon is a part of this League or Arabic group represented in the Security Council or anywhere else, for it is always necessary to belong to something big and powerful which will back you in hard times such as voting in the UN or political support against other countries. Economically, the world economy now is shifting east, and the oil in our areas- If not exploited by settlers- will shift the world center to the Middle East and especially the Gulf. This implies that whatever the situation is, Lebanon has to maintain those strong relations with the GCC in order to be secured economically and benefit from their advancement.
In the case of Jordan, this is a little bit sensitive as well economically but not politically. Politically Jordan is a very close country that Lebanon will have to maintain the same relations that exist nowadays. On the other hand, economically Lebanon will not accept Jordan joining the Lebanese-Syrian union as long as it is a Kingdom with full power for the King which means that it is the king who decided to enter the union to the Jordanians, In addition to the negative effects that the economy will face in case of an uprising or a revolution. In case of Jordanian Republic or a constitutional monarchy Jordan will be a good link between Lebanon and the Gulf and would be a good plan to introduce later An Arab Union forced by the economic success of those small unions.
In total, nothing new regarding the Lebanese foreign policy with the Arab league except for the Lebanese aims to expand the economy country by country until we reach an Arab Union that the majority of the Arabs would love to see. The Arab Union Idea will be discussed in another article far from the foreign policy.
The whole idea will be creating more unity within the Arabic Region which will be a strong alliance for Lebanon to rely on economically and politically.
When it comes to North Africa, the same policy will be followed as friendship and brotherhood and the North African political alliance will be more important than the economic one because our foreign policy will be concentrating on geographically close countries which will provide security and economic prosperity.
To be continued...
Bassem Walid El Remesh
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