Abdullah Yaccoub Bishara Biography | Encyclopedia of... -
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Encyclopedia of World Biography on Abdullah Yaccoub Bishara
The Kuwaiti statesman Abdullah Yaccoub Bishara (born 1936) served as ambassador to Brazil and Argentina and as Kuwait's permanent representative to the United Nations for ten years before becoming the first secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperative Council in 1981.
Abdullah Yaccoub Bishara was born in Kuwait on November 6, 1936.He completed his primary and secondary education in Kuwait, then obtained his bachelor of arts degree from the College of Arts and Sciences at Cairo University (1955-1959).Upon his return to Kuwait he taught at al-Shuwaikh secondary school, from 1959 to 1961.Later he attended Balliol College, Oxford University, where he studied diplomacy and international relations.>
Further study at St. John's University in the United States earned Bishara an M.A. degree in political science, after which he assumed his first diplomatic post, as second secretary for political affairs at Kuwait's embassy in Tunisia, 1963-1964.Between 1964 and 1971 he served as director of the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kuwait.
Still early in his diplomatic career, Bishara was named Kuwait's permanent representative to the United Nations, where he served for ten years (1971-1981).As such, he participated in the U.N.General Assembly from 1976 until 1981 and was involved in all non-aligned conferences from 1971 to 1981.While serving in the United Nations, he was elected chairman of the Security Council in February of 1979 and represented Kuwait on the council for two years.Additionally, he headed several U.N. committees and was vice chairman of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.Bishara headed the Arms Embargo Committee of the United Nations with respect to South Africa and contributed to the debate during 1980 and 1981.
His experience at the United Nations was recounted in his book entitled Two Years in the Security Council.In addition, several essays on political and economic issues written by Bishara have been published in English-language periodicals, and he delivered numerous lectures at American universities and organizations on the subjects of Middle East oil politics and the Persian Gulf.He maintained active membership in the Arab Thought Forum, based in Amman, Jordan.Bishara's diplomatic experience also included service as ambassador to both Brazil and Argentina from 1974 to 1981.Bishara assumed his responsibilities as secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981.
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Abdullah Bishara's generation reached manhood in the mid-1950s.It was a tumultuous time for the whole Arab world, both the Mashreq (Eastern Arab world) and the Maghreb (Western Arab world).The Algerian revolution against French colonialists, the defeat of the Arabs in Palestine and the disaster that befell the Palestinians in 1948, and the Tripartite aggression against Nasser's Egypt in 1956 were all vividly remembered by the Arabs of the 1950s and 1960s.Arab youths attributed Arab suffering and defeat to Arab fragmentation and absence of unity at the state level.It should be remembered that the two important goals of the Arab countries in both the Mashreq and the Maghreb have been Arab unity and independence from the European colonial powers: France in the Maghreb and Britain in the Mashreq.As stated in Article 4 of the GCC constitution, the ultimate aim is unity; the GCC conforms with the national aims of the Arab nation as expressed in the charter of the Arab League.The GCC could be seen by its creators and its first secretary general, Abdullah Bishara, as a step toward those grand goals: Arab economic integration, complementarity, and political solidarity.
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Five years after the invasion of Kuwait, in a Radio National interview on October 5, 1995, Bishara commented on the effect of the war on the Kuwaitis.More than six hundred people were unaccounted for, and this had "frozen the life of a lot of people" who did not know if their relatives and spouses were alive or dead.Bishara did not classify Kuwait as a loser in the war.He stated that the country "obtained a lot, and triumphed in its adversity and tragedy."Also, according to Bishara, the fact that Kuwait depends on Saudi Arabia and the United States for security now does not mean that it has lost it independence, but rather "it's a fact of life that we came into this state of what they call 'interdependence.'"
This is the complete article, containing 1,448 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).
CopyrightsAbdullah Yaccoub Bishara from Encyclopedia of World Biography. ,2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation.All rights reserved.
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