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The Arab League and the GCC—Failures of Regional Organization in the Muslim World?

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Muslim Public Opinion Toward the International Order

Abstract

This chapter directs attention to Muslim citizens’ attitudes toward regional organizations. Focusing on Arab citizens in particular, it concentrates on the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The former is one of the world’s oldest international and regional organizations; the latter has long been relatively unknown, despite being much more successful in its policies than the Arab League. The chapter argues that public opinion toward these organizations is most affected by each organization’s performance respective to its purported aims. Therefore, it is expected that the Arab League would be perceived less favorably than the GCC. Several datasets are used to test this chapter’s hypothesis. The findings indicate that favorability toward the GCC is indeed significantly higher than toward the Arab League. For individual-level factors, the chapter finds the evaluation of the Arab League performance is most significant in affecting attitudes toward the League.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Perhaps holding on to old colonial policy of “divide and rule”.

  2. 2.

    For research on public attitudes toward globalization , international trade, and international institutions, see Scheve and Slaughter (2001), Hainmueller and Hiscox (2006), Mayda and Rodrik (2005), Kaltenthaler et al. (2004), Margalit (2012), Ecker-Ehrhardt (2012), Johnson (2011), Edwards (2009), and Dellmuth and Tallberg (2015). For research on public attitudes toward regional organizations, see Jhee (2009), Kwon (2011), and Schlipphak (2015).

  3. 3.

    For research on public attitudes toward the EU, see Harteveld et al. (2013) and Boomgaarden et al. (2011), among others.

  4. 4.

    See, for example, Keohane and Nye (1987) and Moravcsik (1997).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany

    Mujtaba Ali Isani

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Isani, M.A. (2019). The Arab League and the GCC—Failures of Regional Organization in the Muslim World?. In: Muslim Public Opinion Toward the International Order . Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97328-9_4

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