Abstract
From the early 1920s, when the institutional foundations of separate Arab nation-states in the Middle East were being laid, until the present day, the Arab world has existed in a tension between the conflicting pulls of Pan-Arabism and particularism. Several factors have determined the actual course of events that has unfolded between these two polesbetween the creation of a single united Arab state, on the one hand, and the existence and consolidation of a number of distinct Arab nation-states, on the other. I shall concern myself here with the effect of two specific developments-one of them demographic and the other economic-upon the tension between Arab unity and particularism. The two developments I shall be considering are, first, the high rate of natural increase of the populations of Egypt and of Iran; and, second, the influence exerted by the substantial revenues received from the export of crude oil in the period 1974-81. The interrelation between these developments, and their impact on the situation of the separate Arab nation-state, will also be examined.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Essays on the Economic History of the Middle East |
| Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
| Pages | 160-173 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 0203988167, 9781135779191 |
| ISBN (Print) | 0714633186, 9781138883949 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Jan 2005 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 1988 Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Arts and Humanities
- General Social Sciences
