Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies
Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies
FOREWORD 7
1. THE HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF ARAB
NATIONALISM 10
Prologue 10
The Various Areas of the Pre-colonial Arab World 12
The Dominant Characteristics of the Pre-colonial Arab
World 21
2. THE ERA OF IMPERIALISM (1880-1950)
24
The Fundamental Characteristics of Peripheral
Capitalist Social Formations 25
The Nahda, Last Attempt at Resistance in the 19th
Century 30
The Withdrawal into Provincialism 33
The Palestinian Question, 1920-1948 47
3. THE ERA OF NASSERISM (1952-1967)
50
Egypt 50
Syria 52
Iraq 54
Palestine and Israel 55
The 1967 War and the End of Nasserism 58
4. THE ARAB FUTURE: BOURGEOIS NATIONALISM
OR REVOLUTION 65
From the Defeat of 1967 to the Victory of 1973: A
Respite for the Arab Bourgeoisies 65
The Era of Restorations: the End of Nasserism, towards
a Radicalisation? 71
The Classical Arab Right: Second Wind or Swan-song? 71
Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Tunisia: the Era of
Restorations 74
Algeria, Iraq, Libya, South Yemen: a Belated Nasserism
or Something Better? 77
5. SOME CONCLUSIONS AND PROBLEMS
81
The History of the Arab World and the National
Question 81
The Question of Feudalism in the Arab World and the
Failure of Arab Mercantilism 87
The Unequal Development Thesis 87
The Articulation of the Tributary Mode of Production
with the Mercantile Relations in the Pre-colonial Arab World 93
The Question of Arab Mercantilism’s Failure 98
Zionism, Israel and the Future of Palestine 102
6. THE PERSPECTIVES FACING THE ARAB WORLD:
SOME POSSIBLE OUTCOMES 104
A First Possibility: a Neo-colonial Order and Arab
Disunity 104
A Family of New Possibilities: the Arab World as a
Relay in a Renovated Imperialist Order 105
The Conditions for Socialist Revolution in the Arab
World 111
NOTES AND REFERENCES
115
