Editing Arab League (section)

==History==
Following adoption of the [[Alexandria Protocol]] in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945.<ref name="History">[http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/arab-league-formed Arab League formed – History.com This Day in History – 3/22/1945] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116041827/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/arab-league-formed |date=16 November 2018 }}.</ref> The official headquarters of the League was the Boustan Palace in Cairo.<ref name= Baqai>{{cite journal|author=I. H. Baqai|title=The Pan-Arab League|journal=India Quarterly|date=May 1946|volume=2|issue=2|pages=144–150|jstor=45067282|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45067282|access-date=3 April 2022|archive-date=3 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220403042425/https://www.jstor.org/stable/45067282|url-status=live}}</ref> It aimed to be a regional organisation of Arab states with a focus to developing the economy, resolving disputes and coordinating political aims.<ref name= Baqai/> Other countries later joined the league.<ref>[http://history.howstuffworks.com/asian-history/arab-league.htm HowStuffWorks "Arab League"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110815225240/http://history.howstuffworks.com/asian-history/arab-league.htm |date=15 August 2011 }} History.howstuffworks.com (27 February 2008). Retrieved on 2014-04-28.</ref> Each country was given one vote in the council. The first major action was joint intervention to keep Palestine from being divided into two states in keeping with the decision of the United Nations General Assembly. When Transjordan agreed to this proposal, Egypt intervened to prevent this from happening.<ref>Avi Shlaim, ''Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement and the Partition of Palestine''. Oxford, U.K., Clarendon Press, 1988; Uri Bar-Joseph, Uri, The Best of Enemies: Israel and Transjordan in the War of 1948. London, Frank Cass, 1987; Joseph Nevo, King Abdullah and Palestine: A Territorial Ambition (London: Macmillan Press; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.</ref> It was followed by the creation of a mutual defence treaty two years later. A common market was established in 1965.<ref>Robert W. MacDonald, ''The League of Arab States: A Study in Regional Organization''. Princeton, New Jersey, United States, Princeton University Press, 1965.</ref>

[[File:Arab League of states establishment - Egypt 22-3-1945.jpg|thumb|Arab League of states establishment memorial stamp. Showing flags of the 8 establishing countries: [[Kingdom of Egypt]], [[Saudi Arabia|Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]], [[Kingdom of Yemen]], [[Second Syrian Republic|Syrian Republic]], [[Kingdom of Iraq|Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq]], [[Jordan|Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan]], [[Lebanon|Lebanese Republic]] and [[Palestine]]]]

The Arab League has not achieved much cooperation throughout its history. According to [[Michael N. Barnett|Michael Barnett]] and [[Etel Solingen]], the design of the Arab League reflects Arab leaders' individual concerns for regime survival: "the politics of Arab nationalism and a shared identity led Arab states to embrace the rhetoric of Arab unity in order to legitimize their regimes, and to fear Arab unity in practice because it would impose greater restrictions on their sovereignty."<ref name=":0"/> The Arab League was "specifically designed to fail at producing the kind of greater collaboration and integration that might have weakened political leaders at home."<ref name=":0"/>