To the OP: Thanks for starting this thread and thank you for your kind words.
I personally think Arab unity has become a lost cause over the years. In fact, one could also argue that smaller political movements, such as GCC unity, have also become a lost cause recently, especially after countries like Qatar decided to stab all the other GCC states in the back by siding with the Muslim Brotherhood and by cozying up to countries such as Iran and Turkey, both of which have their own regional aspirations.
I think it boils down to economics. The reason why Arab unity hasn't worked out so well is that there's not a single country in the Arab World that's economically capable of asserting itself across a huge and highly populated area of land that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf. Egypt was supposed to be that country, but its economy has always been in shambles, even since the 1950s and 60s. As a result, no country in the Arab World has ever succeeded in becoming a long-term regional leader. Iraq tried to replace Egypt as the leader of the Arab World in the 1980s, but once again the Iraqis failed to assert themselves for a very long time in the Arab World because they, too, were facing economic hardships.
In the end, it boils down to economics, which is why the coming ten years are going to be very important for Saudi Arabia, both as a country and as a regional player.
Saudi Arabia won't have to worry about troublemakers like Qatar in the future if it gets its own house in order. In order for Saudi Arabia to lead the Arab World, it needs to have a very large self-sufficient economy that would enable it to assert itself in Southwest Asia and North Africa for a very long time. Will Saudi Arabia succeed where the likes of Egypt, Iraq and even Syria have failed? Only time will tell.
We also have to bear in mind that the Arab World is more diverse than the foreigners/non-Arabs tend to think. For example, from a cultural point of view, the Arab World is extremely heterogeneous. The Lebanese culture, for example, has more things in common with the Cypriot culture than it has with the Sudanese culture. Likewise, the Tunisian culture has a lot more in common with the culture of Sicily than it has with the culture of Oman.
Can the Arabic-speaking world overcome vast cultural differences, not to mention genealogical differences, to achieve political and/or economic unity? That's very hard to answer, in my opinion. I dare say that the Arabic-speaking world faces a much more difficult task than Western Europe ever did, and yet even the EU is struggling to keep itself intact, despite its favorable economic size/conditions.
The Arab World has gone through several political phases over the last 50-60 years. Many decades ago, Arab nationalism was a lot more important than Islamism. Since the 90s, however, Islamism has gradually become more important than Arab nationalism. Ironically, neither Arab nationalism nor Islamism has given anything back to the people. The Egyptians lived under multiple Arab nationalist governments for a number of decades during the 20th century, but they failed to see any kind of real prosperity. Likewise, they lived under Islamist rule for a short period of time a few years ago, but they didn't benefit from it. Despite all the promises, both the Arab nationalist and Islamist movements failed to bring real prosperity to the Egyptians, Iraqis, Syrians, Libyans, Yemenis and many other peoples.
Meanwhile, the Gulf Arab monarchies, which weren't 100% dedicated to either Arab nationalism or Islamism, have managed to bring more prosperity to their citizens by being more pragmatic and less idealistic.
I think the Arab World is witnessing the rise of localism lately. Tunisia is an excellent case in point. It's the only liberal/electoral/representative democracy in the Arab World right now. It's also the only country in the Arab World to be classified as "free" by Freedom House. If you look at Tunisia's foreign policy, you'd realize that it's not interested in getting involved in regional or pan-Arab affairs. It's very localist, which is what the Tunisian voting-age population wants. As the only success story in the Arab World, Tunisia will focus exclusively on domestic issues over the next couple of decades. Once it becomes strong and sustainable enough to carry its own weight, it will be able to become an initiator of regional integration in the Arab Maghreb.
I'm personally an advocate of Middle Eastern integration. I think there should be a Middle East Union, similar to the EU. It should include the GCC states, Iraq, the Levant, Yemen, Iran, Israel, a potential Kurdistan, and possibly Turkey -- unless Turkey ends up joining the EU. Anyway, this Middle East Union should represent all peoples of the region.
It's time we move beyond ethnic nationalism and religion, in my opinion. Nationalism didn't do the Europeans any good. It almost destroyed them in the 1940s.
Don't misunderstand me, though.
Preserving and promoting your ethnic identity / ethnicity, culture and language is very, very important, in my opinion!!! There's absolutely nothing wrong about that.
Dogmatism, however, needs to end. It has kept this region behind for many decades because it made people spend more time thinking about whom to hate and less time being creative and productive. As a result, the Arab World has gone backwards over the years, while other parts of the world, including some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, kept moving forwards.
The Middle East needs to find the right balance. Sadly, it hasn't found it yet.
