Where Are the Arabs in the Transformations of the International System?

Trump's statements since the beginning of his first term, which have been contradictory and confrontational even with his European allies, indicate policies that have threatened the unity of the Western camp, especially when he raised the slogan "America First" and began taking economic measures against his European allies. In addition, his comments regarding Greenland, which belongs to Denmark (a NATO member), and his threat to annex Canada, also a NATO member, as well as interventions in contentious issues, and making unilateral decisions without coordination with European allies, culminating in interventions in Venezuela and the war on Iran, have harmed the European and global economies and threatened international peace.

One of the latest of these positions was Trump's threat to withdraw from NATO, alongside harmful statements towards European countries and their leaders, which were met with European responses and positions from writers and journalists on both sides that reflect unprecedented signs of hostility and mistrust, sometimes escalating to personal insults between leaders as seen between Trump and the presidents of Spain and France.

All of this points to the potential collapse of the Western camp and NATO, similar to the collapse of the socialist camp, the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact in the early 1990s; a collapse that led to the emergence of a new era and a new international system that ended the global order established by the Yalta Agreement in February 1945. The most notable features of that system were the cohesion and unity of NATO and the European Union, acceptance of Washington's leadership of this alliance, and full coordination between Europe and America on all international disputes.

This scene places us before the possibility of the disintegration of the Western camp, forcing us to face an unstable and multipolar international system, or even a state of international "anarchy," especially after Washington's violation of the sovereignty of more than one country, and even its threat to wipe out the country and civilization of Iran from the international map! Additionally, the ignoring and marginalization of the United Nations and international legitimacy, as well as their complete absence from current international conflicts.

The question that arises is: Where are the Arabs in these transformations of the international system?

Unfortunately, the Arabs have had no influence or role in these transformations - the actors in them were the United States, Russia, China, and Europe, alongside regionally Israel, Turkey, and Iran - and they have not benefited at any stage; neither during the bipolar system, nor in the subsequent new international system, and it does not seem that they will influence the current situation or benefit from it.

During the bipolar era, while there was talk of the socialist camp as a strategic ally or friend of the Arabs, the 1967 defeat (the Naksa) occurred, the Palestinian revolutionary forces were expelled from Jordan during the events of "Black September" in 1970, the civil war in Lebanon erupted in the mid-1970s, and the October War of 73, normalization of relations between Egypt and Israel, which led to a subsequent division in the Arab arena, and then Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the first Gulf War in 1990, among others. With the emergence of the new international system, a new phase was inaugurated where American and Israeli hegemony became more pronounced, beginning with the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991 under American sponsorship, the Oslo Agreement (Peace) with the Palestinians in 1993, and the Wadi Araba Agreement with Jordan in 1994, followed by the occupation of Iraq in 2003, the chaos termed as the "Arab Spring," the disintegration and collapse of Arab states, followed by the second wave of normalization with Israel (the Abraham Accords), the forgotten war in Somalia, and the wars in Yemen and Sudan.

The region has also witnessed Turkish and Iranian interventions in Arab internal affairs, the invasion of Syria, and the occupation of parts of it by Turkey, Israel, and America, in addition to the continuation of Israeli aggressive policies in Palestine, the expansion of settlement projects, the ongoing occupation of the Syrian Golan, culminating in the genocide against the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza. Now, with rising tensions with Iran and continued targeting of Lebanon, the Arab situation is deteriorating further, and matters may lead to more disintegration and collapse, amid potential interests alignment between Washington, Tel Aviv, and Tehran for influence-sharing in the region, particularly in the Arabian Gulf.