Arab nationalism and the United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

The universally Nationalist movement emerge~ during the nineteenth century. It resulted in many international changes. The Arab Nationalist movement emerged in the early years of the twentieth century. In the beginning, it was confused with Islam because of historical circumstances. During its development, Arab nationalism had three stages: (1) Pan-Islam, (2) liberal nationalism, and (3) radical nationalism. The results of Arab nationalism's revival was diversified --in time and power--among the Arab countries, according to each one's conditions. The Arabian Gulf Emirates were not influenced by Arab nationalism except in the late 1950's. The main reasons were: the British domination over and isolation of the Emirates, in addition to their poverty and backwardness. In the late 1960's Britain announced her intent to withdraw from the area. This announcement put the Emirates in a critical political position in spite of their economic improvement because of their oil exports since the early 1960's. During that critical era Arab nationalism had a great influence, which determined the attachments and the identity of the emirates. Arab countries, motivated by Arab nationalist feelings, contributed to the Emirates (before and after the British withdrawal), by offering them large missions in many fields such as administration, education, health, military assistance, etc. On December 2, 1971, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were formally established as a federal state of seven emirates. The UAE in the same year became a major participant in any regional activity. It also became a member of the Arab league, the United nations, and many international organizations. In spite of many favorable factors available to the UAE, there have been some obstacles to its success; however, these obstacles could be overcome through effort and time. The UAE is a young Arab country. It has many prerequisites of success and is expected to attain more solidarity and power. As Arab nationalism was a contributing factor to the UAE, the UAE experiment made a strong argument for the theory of Arab nationalism and its main principle and goal, the Arab unity.