ARAB IRAN POLITICS

Arab Iran Politics

Arab Iran Politics

Arab Politics

On a popular level, the idea of Arab unity has had considerable attraction in the Arab world, since most of the population speaks Arabic, is Muslim, and does share a wide range of common cultural assumptions and social attitudes. In practical terms, however, the weakness, lack of legitimacy and the profoundly undemocratic or anti-democratic nature of almost all Arab regimes, coupled with the fact that the existing individual national states are at very different stages of socioeconomic and political development, has meant that however immediately desirable the idea may be, the practical realization of pan-Arabism is as far away today as it was when al-Husri first formulated it in the 1920s. In addition, it is probably true to say that the pursuit, or the excuse, of pan-Arabism, has had a generally negative effect on the process of state and nation building in the Arab world, since it has tended to focus attention on a distant external enemy rather than on the glaring problems of poverty, inequality and the absence of the rule of law within the existing states (Hillstrom, 2006).

Both religion and nationalism are more than mere ideologies or emotional states of mind. They represent social and intellectual movements, which seek to restructure both the material and cultural aspects of life. Moreover, they both provide collective identities, strive to change unjust situations and operate on the basis of sustained actions and rituals.

In addition, one of the most visible features of political developments in the region over the past few decades - underlined by the Gulf crisis of 199-1 - is the gradual adoption of more autonomous and inward-looking policies on the part of all the Arab regimes, notwithstanding loud public claims to the contrary. Events in one Arab state no longer necessarily assume ...