Nationalism in the Arab world

Question 1

What factors are arab nationalism associated with? (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 1

• anti-colonialism
• romanticism
• state building
• self-determination
• socialism
• religion

Question 2

What did arab nationalism draw on? (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 2

• traditional nation-state

- arab/muslim concepts of ummaa/community

Question 3

What did the first stirrings of national consciousness grow out of? (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 3

-Centuries old tensions between the arab people and their turkish overlords

Question 4

How does Aziz al Azmeh see arab nationalism?

Answer 4

-as a product of ottoman reforms

Question 5

What was the watershed moment for arab nationalism? (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 5

-WW1 and the arab revolt

Question 6

Describe Arab revolt (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 6

• organised by Sharif Hussein and the liberation of Damascus was led by his son prince Faisal, assisted by Lawrence of Arabia
• Hussein and his sons led a revolt against the Ottoman rulers and raised the first arab force for independence
• 1918 Damascus falls to arabs

Question 7

What alerted arabs to the possibly duplicitous character of the British in particular? (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 7

-Issues like Sykes-Picot

Question 8

What happened as western interests expanded? (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 8

-Arabs gained a sense of unity and direction

Question 9

Two strands of nationalism (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 9

• Pan-arabism or unification nationalism

- arab nationalism or patriotic/ state nationalism

Question 10

When did the UAR exist between? (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 10

-1958-1961

Question 11

What are the 6 features of pan arabism that make it evocative? (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 11

-Universalism
.Arab nationalism as an intellectual force
.decline of colonial powers
.a mobile trans-state arab elite
.1948 Palestine debacle which forced arabs to unite against Israel
.Power of pan-arabism (from 1956-1970) derived from Nasser’s charismatic leadership

Question 12

Why did the UAR fail? (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 12

.Nasser was not prepared to share power with Syrians, basically Egyptian imperialism

.union strengthened the Egyptian state by weakning the Syrian state thus there was no parity of power

.Nasser’s attempt to introduced social and economic change and his failure to find a suitable framework to support this process

Question 13

What was a watershed moment in pan-arabism and arab nationalism (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 13

-The six day war and the further loss of palestinian territory

Question 14

What was the rise of Egyptian nationalism associated with? (Milton-Edwards)

Answer 14

-an urbanized, anti-colonial, educated elite which was determined to end Britian’s hold over the largest country in the region

Question 15

What did the six day war do according to Ajami?

Answer 15

-dishonoured practically all regimes, particularly pan-arabists in Cairo and Damascus

Question 16

What did Hafez al Assad do that signalled ending of pan-arabism (Ajami)

Answer 16

-Made peace with king Hussein and abandoned the baathist notion of bringing Egypt into Pan-Arab fold and making her do their bidding for them

Question 17

When did Qaddafi’s appeal dissipate? (Ajami)

Answer 17

-once Sadat broke military stalemate

Question 18

What according to Ajami is filling the vacuum of pan-arabism?

Answer 18

• Religion on one level
• loyalty to the state on another
• however this is based on a study of some uni students lol

Question 19

What factors push the ME towards cooperative institutions? (Nafaa)

Answer 19

• Same language
• same culture
• shared historical experience
• present problems held in common

Question 20

What factors pull the ME in opposite directions? (Nafaa)

Answer 20

• Unequal distribution of human and natural resources
• substantial diferences in political systems, ideologies and constitutions
• serious psycholoigcal and sociological hetrogeneity

Question 21

What is the state of arab nationalism according to Leiden?

Answer 21

-Not likely to disappear, but its peak in the 20th century seems to have passed

Question 22

What is wrong with Ajami’s suggestion that arab nationalism comes from ottoman legacy? (Nafaa)

Answer 22

-That’s history, the more recent memory of colonialism, from which arab states emerged is more important

Question 23

How does Nafaa summarise Ajami’s arguement?

Answer 23

• Ajami suggests that pan-arabism defeated on both governmental and popular level
• on governmental level arab regimes behave according to their seperate riasons d’etat
• on popular level of public opinion, the development of particular and antagonistic nationalisms within the boundaries of arab states generates grievance

Question 24

What does Ajami confuse? (Nafaa)

Answer 24

• idea and its implementation

- the idea of one arab nation with an immortal mission has never been translated into a viable political project

Question 25

Whats wrong with Ajami seeing local nationalisms and pan-arabism as antagonistic concepts? (Nafaa)

Answer 25

-they both pursue the same objective: independence

Question 26

How has Israel both integrated and disintegrated arab world? (Nafaa)

Answer 26

• Integration in the sense that Israel is living memorial to arab weakness and division
• disintegration as it helped to radicalise some arab regions, which in turn increased division in arab world

Question 27

What two major ideas does arab nationalism now consist of (AbuKhalil)

Answer 27

• the notion that the arabs share common sentiments and a cultural and linguistic heritage
• the idea that some of the border between Arab states are not only artificial but also undesirable

Question 28

What has been underestimated as a cause for arab spring? (El-Mahdi)

Answer 28

-Arabism

Question 29

How did the uprisings reinvent an Arab national identity? (El-Mahdi)

Answer 29

• new collective identity is not being forged from above as in the heydays of state nationalism in 50s and 60s
• but rather from below and in opposition to the hegemonic grand narratives and governing dynamics of the ruling elite