Regionalism in Syria

Syria's historical status as a part of the Arab and Muslim world must be taken into account in any examination of its status in the international political economy. The resonance of Islam, indeed, seems paramount to Syrian culture. Further, the legacy of what can be described as the insular character of Islam vis-à-vis other cultures or nation-states appears to have been decisive for many years. In this regard, Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh explains that classical Islamic law essentially mandates "one homeland for all the Muslims. No frontier separates the different regions. Each is a part of the Ummah, the Islamic nation; he can move and sojourn wherever he likes in this vast empire which becomes larger and larger, including new nationalities." On the other hand, Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh notes that as a practical matter, Egyptians, Syrians, and Iraqis, for example, have not been entirely comfortable with representatives outside their respective homelands in pan-Arab affairs. Thus he cites

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what was perceived to be going on was different from what was actually going on behind the scenes. As complicated as political aspects of regionalism may seem, its economic aspects seen even more complex in the current period. In this regard, O'Loughlin and Anselin make the point that, despite evidence of regionalist rhetoric in places around the world, the free-trade model espoused by U.S. and European industrialized countries and exemplified by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) remains dominant: "the 'end' of the GATT [by means of economic regionalism] is exaggerated because regional trade blocs are still poorly developed." In other words, the momentum is on the side of free trade as a universal principle of international economic activity rather than on the side of regional preferences in foreign trade as a regionalist principle of economic activity. Elsewhere, O'Loughlin and Anselin also argue against a regionalist model as the basis for authentic prosperity over the long term: It is in no country's interests unilaterally to confine its trade energies to one region. A better strategy is to try to hold market share in the region of dominance while expanding the direction of trade to other, especially growing
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1591
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)