With no ideologies or institutions to stitch together the region, many Arab states have fallen back on a narrow, self-interested nationalism
The army put paid to all this in 2013, and now the square resembles a military man’s idea of public space. It has been smartened up, with fresh paint on the buildings, well-kept grass and the central roundabout anchored by an obelisk—and also cleared of people. Guards shoo away anyone who lingers too long.
Before Islam came, the Arabs were, simply, Arabic-speaking nomads of the Arabian peninsula and Mesopotamian desert. The conquests of Islamic caliphates then spread their tongue and faith as far afield as modern-day Spain and Pakistan. But the last caliphate fell to the Ottomans in the 16th century, ushering in a 400-year period when most Arabs were ruled by outsiders.
What followed was a decades-long effort to create an expansive, transnational Arab identity. Arab nationalism would become the region’s ascendant ideology. Its main competitor, Islamism, found its own pan-Arab manifestation in the Muslim Brotherhood. The Arab League was meant to integrate the region and safeguard states’ independence. The conflict with Israel became a touchstone: a joint military struggle for some, an ideological cause for all.
This special report is about the regional order that has emerged from the past decade. It has three distinct characteristics. First is the external weakness of many Arab states: the most powerful countries in the Middle East are all non-Arab. Second is their internal brittleness. Bulging young populations and unproductive economies are existential threats that often call for harsh repression. Apart from the Gulf countries, the Arab world is a string of failed and failing states.
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