Postscript: Pan-Arab Nationalism as an Aspect of the Contemporary Politics of Arab States and Political Parties

Abstract

The significance of Sati ‘al-Husri’s work lies first of all in the fact that it faithfully reflects an important phase in modern Arab history and the political thought which accompanied it, and secondly in that his writings themselves had a considerable impact on political developments in the Middle East. al-Husri’s ideas became part of an obligatory political ideology in those Arab states which were formed out of the process of decolonisation after the Second World War. They were also taken as the guiding principles of the nationalist parties and organisations which represented the Arab national movement in this period. The two most important Pan-Arab political organisations were the Arab Bath, or Rebirth, Party, and the organisation of the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), (Haraka al-Qawmiyyin al-‘Arab). The Ba‘th Party was founded in the 1940s by a group of Syrian students led by Michel ‘Aflaq, all of whom had studied at the Sorbonne. The ANM was founded in the early 1950s by Arab students at the American University of Beirut. Both organisations took al-Husri’s notion of populist Pan-Arab nationalism as their starting point. Their only significant departure from al-Husri’s theories is their addition of the no less mystical doctrine of ‘Arab socialism’ to Arab nationalism.KeywordsMiddle EastArab CountryArab WorldSocialist PartyArab StateThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.