The countries of the Arab world

We have already talked about many things concerning the Arab world. We realize that with all those informations and all those which will com, we did not take time to talk about countries of the Arab world. A lot of people makes the error to categorize systematically a country or arabic-speaking as member of the Arab League. That is why today, we are happy to present you the Arab world in global way.

The countries

 The Arab world is composed of 22 countries represented by the IMA : Institute of the Arab World. For the greater part, they have the Arab as official language and the population is mainly Muslim even if some former religions are present. There are also other spoken languages in these countries. Here is the list of the countries : Algeria, Saidi Arabia, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Irak, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.

Geographicaly, the countries of the Arab world are grouped in 5 regional spaces categorizes as follows :

• The Magheb : Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya
• The Nile valley : Egypt and Sudan
• The horn of Africa : Djibouti, Somalia and Comoros
• The fertile cresent : Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq
• The Arabian Peninsula : Saudi Arabia, Yeman, Oan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait

The population

Accordind to studies in 2014, the Arabic population is estimated at 378 millions, and continue multiplying. Arab countries are in the heart of a demographic transition. We oserve an increase of the fertility of the woman, in other words an increase of the birth rate. As the case of Tunisia, we observe a fertility of 2,5 child by woman in 2014. And for the case of Egypt, there is a even a problem of overpopulation, Egyptians live on a narrow territory. But there is some exception like the case of the Libanon.

On one hand, in spite of this increase of the population, approximately 40% libves below the poverty line in 2009 accorrding to a report of the Program of the Nation United for the Fevelopment (UNDP) and the Arab League. But on the other hand, in front of this increasing demography, the cities of the Arab world get organized for projects of urbanization and priorizequality infrastructures. In particular, the systms of distributions of the water, tne energy, the waste treatment and transport networks in order to fullfil the population’s needs.

The politic

The countries of the Arb wolrd constitute a vast geopolitical entity as diverse as diversified. The Arab League, officially named « League of Arab Sates », is based on March 22nd, 1945 in Cairo by seven countries. Nowadays, it consists by 22 member states which we qualify as Arab world. The organization of the Arab League has four bodies :

• The summit of the heads of state
• The council of Ministers
• The permanent committees
• The General secretariat

The Arab States divide into Republics and Monarchies. The membership to the ligue is governed by charters and on certain conditions the main clauses of which are to be an Arab country (which the official or co-official language is Arabic) and independant. Every candidature is submitted if there is unanimity (article 7 of the charter). The adopted decisons must be applied by member countries.

The economy

The Arab world is well known by its production of oil, we find in particular some of the main world producers such us : Qatar, Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain. Nevertheless, we notice a rather unequal distribution of the wealth because the Arab worldshelters some poorest cuntries in the world. We also find rich countries, as Qatar which is one of the 10 richest country in the world. The Arab world is thus diveded into two different parts on the economic plan, the countries which have some oil and those who have no it.

The whole Arab world, if it was considered a country, would post un GDP about 1800 billion dollars of which the Saudi Arabia with its GDP of about 654 billion dollars (2015). The average GDP per capita amounts to approximately $6200 if we group all the countries. But to underline the difference, the highest GDP/inhabitant is the one of Qatar with appoximately $140 000 in 2013 whereas that of Somali ais about $600.

The geography

The surface of the Arab is 13,3 milllions km², that is 3 times the surface of the European Union and 8,9 % of the surface of lands emerged from the world. Bahrain is the samallest Arab state with 707 km² and Algeria is the vastest country with a surface wich extends up to 2 381 741 km².

The Arabic ground contains the biggest reserves in oil and in phosphate in the world.

According to the geographers, except for five regional spaces form which form the countries of the Arab world, they can be also grouped in two regional spaces without the countries of the Horn of Africa :

• The Maghreb, the sunset : Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. The Magreb is lined in the North by the Mediterranean Sea, by Atlantic Ocean in the West and in the South by the desert of Sahara and crossed by the chain of the Atlas on more than 2000km
• The Machrek, the East : Egypt, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yémén, Oman, United arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. For the case of Machrek which indicates the Arabic East, the geographical limits vary considerably according to sources, sensibilities ot theories.