S.-supported dictators.
Thus, while the term "Arab" is useful for describing a particular group of people with a shared language, culture, and history, one cannot readily assume that all Arabs subscribe to a pan-Arabist ideology, especially in light of the often overlapping "Muslim world," which many Arabs would identify themselves a part of (above and beyond any shared connection due to their Arab heritage). In reality, a shared linguistic and cultural background is really the only thing that unites Arabs, but because the world's largely white, Christian reigning powers have for so long actively disenfranchised and brutalized the Arab world, either through direct action or proxies, this shared linguistic and cultural background has been the only unifying feature which allows for any resistance. In many ways, one may see the emerging democratic movements of the Arab Spring as the successful replacement of both pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism, because the desire for social and economic justice independent of ethnicity, language, or religion has become so great that it serves as a rallying point for solidarity ultimately more applicable and realizable than any community...
Much of Western foreign policy in recent years has relied on conflating of the Arab world with the Muslim world (and a subsequent conflation of Muslims with Muslim extremists) while at the same time attempting to pit pan-Arab nationalism against any kind of Muslim solidarity. Investigating the historical origins of Arabs in general and pan-Arab nationalism in particular serves a dual purpose, because a greater understanding of the term "Arab" and its relations to Middle Eastern political and ethnic identities helps to do away with the almost intentional confusion of the Arab and Muslim worlds as well as explain the historical revolutions of the Arab Spring.
References
Goldschmidt, A., & Davidson, L. (2006). A concise history of the middle east. Boulder:
Westview Press.
Kinninmont, J. (2008). The politics of chaos in the middle east. Middle…
