Pan-Arabism

There are a number of ironies and self-contradictions involved in ideas of pan-Arabism, some of which shall be explored later on in this paper. However, the most striking one should be noted initially. While it is true that many countries in the Middle East (as well as in other regions of the world) are united by their population's use of the Arab language, the idea of a pan-Arab identity (with a core of Middle Eastern states) would probably not have come about without Western ideas  and meddling. It was Europeans who created the idea of the Orient  which originally referred not to the countries of Asian but to the Middle East. It was Europeans who saw these countries as sufficiently similar to each other (or as difficult to distinguish from each other) so as to merit a single designation. Such a perspective had political implications that have shown up in everything from the Crusades to U.S. support for the state of Israel, and it remains important to remember that while pan-Arabism has always had an anti-Western an

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the importance of regenerating a common heritage of people in the region to drive off debilitating external influences. This is a nearly perfect statement of the political philosophy (and praxis) of the idea of pan-Arabism (Rubin, 1990, p. B7). Articulated as the principle of Arab nationalism, the Baath movement was one of several political groups that drew legitimacy from an essentially reactive ideology. Nevertheless, unlike the Arab nationalism typified by Gamal Abdel Nasser, which generated much of its support from his personal charisma, Baathist ideology spread slowly by educating followers to its intellectual attractions. The official founding of the party may be dated from its first party congress in Damascus on April 7, 1947, when a constitution was approved and an executive committee established. However, significant expansion beyond Syria's borders took place only after the war of 1948, when lack of Arab unity was widely perceived as responsible for the loss of Palestine to the new state of Israel. The Iraqi branch of the Baath party was established in 1954 and Baathist parties came to power in both Syria and Iraq in the 1960s, where they have since dominated the political process in these states. The rise of the
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Arab League, Baath Party, Egyptians Beyond, Gulf War, West Norton, East Europeans, , War Nasser, Latin America, Persian Gulf, baath party, arab league, norton 1990 m1, norton 1990, 1990 m1, gulf war, middle east, arab world, los angeles, angeles times, los angeles times, rubin 1990, rubin 1990 b7, a5 rubin 1990, ross 1991 a5,
Approximate Word count = 3595
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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