European Journal of Scientific Research (ISSN: 1450 ... - EuroJournals

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© European Journal of Scientific Research, Vol 7, No 5, 2005 A COMPARATIVE APPROACH TO SECURITY: THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL Mazen K. Gharaibeh Department of Political Science Kuwait University ABSTRACT This paper provides a comparative analysis of the European Union (EU) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It compares and contrasts the history, development, organizational structure, function, successes and failures. Basis of similarities include and attempt to secure political and defense cooperation through economic integration, while differences include profound contrasts in members' structure, organizational designs as well as political and social traditions. Key Words: EU, GCC, Integration, Functionalism. INTRODUCTION Scholars consider integration as a successful approach to security and peace. One can't but be inspired with the European Union's (ED) multicultural integration transcending to the economy, politics, industry, citizens rights and foreign policy. Four decades after six Western European states (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, and West Germany) Signed the Treaty of Rome and thereby created the EEC. (European Economic Community) or common Market, the much expanded group of nations (now 25) and known as the European Union (EU) have nearly completed their goal of economic, political, and social integration and has become the model for regional integration schemes (Caporaso, 1996). Nations around the world have looked to the EU as a model in formulating their own free trade areas, customs unions, common defense policies, and programs for regional integration. On the other hand, one tan observe another important, yet modest, attempt for integration presented by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with its six states calling for coordination and cooperation in various fields. In 1981, when the six nations in the Arabian Gulf - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - came together to form the Gulf Cooperation Council, they too, acknowledged inspiration from the experience of the European Community (Sandwick, 1987). And while the GCC, which is intended to be of much more limited scope than the EU, has encountered its own problems and barriers in pursuing its integration and cooperation program (e.g., territorial disputes amongst the members, domestic unrest, security threats, political conflicts in establishing a common defense strategy, etc.), scholars have nevertheless lauded the accomplishments of the GCC so far (Baabood, 2003). As John Duke Anthony, former President and CEO of the National Council on U. S. - Arab Relations noted a few years ago: It is widely acknowledged that in terms of measurable cooperation on region-wide issues of interest and concern to its members, the GCC has already achieved more than the European Economic Commission (EEC) did in its first decade... Beyond its political and economic
© European Journal of Scientific Research, Vol 7, No 5, 2005 ramifications, the GCC stands as proof that regional accord among Arab countries on a host of developmental, strategic and security issues is possible... (Anthony, 1996) In this paper, I will provide a comparative analysis of the European Union (EU) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), defining and explaining the history and development of each group; comparing their respective organizational structures and institutional functions; and assessing the successes and failures of each bloc. The conclusion is a personal analysis of the reasons that may have limited the success of the GCC versus the EU. THE EUROPEAN UNION Signed in December 1991 by delegates from the then 12-member EC states in Maastricht, The Netherlands, the Treaty on European Union (or the "Maastricht Treaty), formally changed the name of the EC to the E.U (European Union). The opening paragraph of the, 250 - page Treaty reads: "By this Treaty; the High Contracting Parties establish among themselves. A European Union (Caporaso, 1996). Maastricht does not represent the birth of the European Union, but rather the final steps to a long process of European integration and regional cooperation. Scholars note that through the long process of creating the European Union, the member states and their leaders followed a "Functionalist" approach (Michael, 1989; Marks and Blank, 1996). While the pursuit of the functionalist approach has led to the accurate observation that European integration has developed over the course of forty-five years. As explained by Gavazza and Pelanda: For the functionalists, European integration is a process of transferring national powers to a supranational entity through measures called for, made necessary-in some sense, by economic interests and by the market. Three rules have usually guided this process. First to maintain the process of constructing the Community, the states of economic integration must follow each other without interruption. Second, every stage must be concluded with an enrichment of the array of powers available to the community. Third, no stage must ever be complete and perfect, in order that the next step is made inevitable (Caporaso, 1996). Thus, it was functionalist logic which motivated the passage of the Single European Act (the Single Market Act) bereft of any provisions related to a common currency or central bank. The Maastricht Treaty itself gives formal recognition to the use of the functionalist approach, noting in Paragraph 2 of Article A that the Treaty "marks a new stage in the process of creating an every closer union among the peoples of Europe." (Holms and Jenkins, 1996). EU: HISTORY-& DEVELOPMENT The development of the EU can be broken into three major stages: 1) an initial stage of policy development and consolidation; 2) a second stage of expansion, widening, and stagnation; and 3) a third stage of mote rapid movement toward complete integration, ending with the 1986 Single Market Act and the 1991 Maastricht Treaty (Rybezynski, 1993). The roots of the European Union can be found in the years following the end of World War II and the political ideals of Jean Monnet (a French civil servant), Robert Schuman (the French foreign minister), and Altiero, Spinelli (an Italian politician who argued in favor of the creation of a federalist Europe) (Michael, 1989). While they differed in their specific areas of emphasis and 21
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