ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the "frontier-effects" created by the definition of the physical-political and the social-historical boundaries of the Arab region. It also discusses the constitutive meaning of the Arab identity, the articulation of different elements in the making of this very identity and its relations with the Arab region making process. The chapter presents how the materialization of borders of meaning operates not only in the definition of those located outside the Arab region but also in silencing the voices from the inside that may disrupt the effects of truth produced within the discourses of Arab identity. Indeed, the role the technocrats working for the Economic and Social Council of the LAS play in the constitution of regional free trade areas in the Arab world and their power to allocate the resources disbursed by the GCC will further reveal the extent to which the LAS is meaningful both inside and outside the Arab world.