Pan-Arabism

Pan-Arabism is a political and ideological movement linked to Arab nationalism, carried in the context of decolonization and the struggle of countries of the Global South against imperialism. It predicates that all Arab populations without exclusion, in Asia as in Africa, form a cultural unity which must construct a path to political unity. This feeling of Arab unity developed as a result of the Ottoman Empire’s fragmentation, but also in reaction to the interference of US and Soviet powers after World War II. In the sixties, it found solid foundations in the countries of Maghreb and Western Asia, especially in Egypt with the central figure of Gamal Abder Nasser, and in Syria and Iraq with the Arab socialism of the Baath party ("Renaissance "). Driven in some cases by social revolutions, pan-Arabism was developed alongside socialist and Marxist ideas which founded projects for the nationalization of enterprises and for agrarian reform. This principle made it possible to strengthen the economic and political links between countries which had recently become independent, by underlining their historical, cultural and social affinities. The 1967 Six-Day War marked the beginning of decline for Pan-Arabism, which was eclipsed by pan-Islamist or national movements which erased its tendency to transcend religious boundaries.

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