Ortadoğu Etütleri

Öz

Abstract: This article examines the ability and competence of the Arab League (AL) in managing and resolving conflicts between its member states. As a regional organization, AL has poorly performed both in terms of institutional structure and power in managing and resolving conflicts. The reason for this failure can be attributed to two important factors: first, the different regime structures and economic power of the AL member states; second, the involvement of international institutions and powerful states in the process of conflicts in line with their interests. These two factors have weakened the AL’s control over managing and resolving conflicts and ultimately lost its initiative on regional conflicts to global powers. While dealing with the actors, organs and their functions in conflict resolutions, the paper will focus on the AL’s Council, Secretariat, Summits and other instruments which are authorized to resolve disputed cases among its member states. In this way, with emphasize on the institutional structure of the AL, the paper aims to shed light on the League's decision-making and conflict-solving structure. In this context, two cases from the history of the League will be examined in order to explore how the League manages the conflicts with its current structure. The first of these is the Iraq-Kuwait conflicts of 1961 and 1990 that threatened Kuwait’s sovereignty, and the second is the border conflict between Morocco and Algeria in the Western Sahara region.