Pan-Arabism

Pan-Arabism is a movement for unification among the Arab peoples and nations of the Middle East. Though its origins can be traced to the anti-Imperialist nationalist movement among Arab peoples preceding World War I, a more formalized pan-Arab ideology was first espoused in the 1940s in Syria by Michel Afleq[?], a founder of the Ba'ath (Renaissance) Party, combining elements of both socialism and Italian fascism. A pan-Arab ideology lay at basis of various attempts over the past fifty years to unite various Arab nation-states, most notably the short-lived United Arab Republic, which united Egypt and Syria (and for a brief time, Yemen). Other, more recent efforts to unite various Arab states have focused mainly on Libya, which has attempted unions of various sorts with Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco.

Modern Pan-Arabism is generally a secular movement and attempts to overcome religious as well as regional differences between its adherents. For example, the upper echelons of Syria's pan-Arab Ba'athist government are Alaouites (a Shi'a sect), yet they unity they espouse would encompass Sunnis, Druze, and Christian Arabs. Similarly, Tariq Aziz, a Christian and the deputy prime minister of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, was another prominent pan-Arabist.

The Syrian government and the former government of Iraq were led by the Ba'ath Party, which espouses pan-Arabism.

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