Rutgers, State University of NJ
Graduate School of Management
Contact:
Helen Paxton; 201-648-5177
[email protected]
THE ROAD TO PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Economic cooperation offers the Middle East such clear benefits that it
will eventually prevail over hostility. Jerry Rosenberg, Professor and
Chair of International Business at Rutgers, and an active participant at
mid-east economic summits, has a model for such cooperation.
Some people despair. Others have a vision.
For the past year Jerry Rosenberg, Professor and Chair of
International Business at the Faculty of Management, has been
traveling the Middle East proclaiming his vision of unity. He has
spoken to (among many others) Jordan's King Hussein, Palestine's
Yasser Arafat, and Israel's Shimon Peres, extolling his ideas about the
logical steps that will, sooner or later, take place -- and arguing that
they should come sooner.
Six unassailable truths motivate the search for unity. (1)
With unity comes strength. Individual nations can never achieve the
economic clout that alliances of nations can. (2) Unity leads to more
unity. Nobody likes to be left out. (3) Technology and research leap
forward under regional agreements, far faster than without them. (4)
Regional integration leads to global markets. (5) Mutually enhanced
productivity is far more rewarding than mutual devastation. And (6)
Regional economic agreements are the only way to counter other
regional economic agreements.
What Dr. Rosenberg sees is a three-step process. It will in
all probability get its astonishing start shortly with JIPTA -- the
Jordan-Israel-Palestine Trade Agreement -- which no one would have
thought possible just a few years ago, and which in fact some people
still can't believe is going to come about.
Since, according to unassailable truth #2, unity leads to more
unity, the second step can't be far away. As soon as other nations,
even just one or two other nations, see the progress of JIPTA, they will
want to become part of it, and thus will be born MEFTA -- the Middle
East Free Trade Association -- which could even be broadened to
include cultural as well as economic matters and thus be an MEC --
Middle East Community -- like the European Community.
Then when North African countries see the benefits accruing
from unity, they will want in too -- leading to MENAFTA, which could well
evolve into MENAC, which would be a community with 300 million
people and consequently a whopping amount of power.
But good grief. Is such a thing really feasible?
Yes, Prof. Rosenberg says, and he cites four facts that often
get overlooked.
(1) Arabs and Jews have indeed lived together for centuries in
relative peace, and there have actually been periods of close
association and harmony. If we look beyond temporary troubles, we
see a much different picture, a much more hopeful one.
(2) Even among the 20 or so Arab nations, although we
usually hear only about their differences, what they have in common is
far greater -- their culture, their needs, their expectations.
(3) Trade among participating nations brings an increased
living standard to all their citizens.
(4) It's in everybody's interest for cooperation to succeed
once it's started. If it fails, the old problems simply return.
JERRY ROSENBERG, Professor and Chair of International Business ,
is the author of more than 20 books, including dictionaries of banking,
computers, international trade, investing, management, marketing, and
retailing. He has written widely on the emerging market alliances
around the world.
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