Hubert Védrine: Dawn of a new Arab nationalism
[The writer is former foreign minister of France.]
How events in the Arab world will evolve is of course uncertain. What is certain, however, is that we in the west have to adjust to a new reality: an Arab world that will be more nationalistic.
For now, the west is frightening itself with the spectre of political Islam. It is premature to say a solution has been found to avoid moving from the overthrow of authoritarian regimes to sinking into Islamism, but no expert on the Arab world foresees a scenario à la Iran which took everyone by surprise, including Iranians. Islamic parties will emerge stronger from free elections, but the chances that they will seek to hijack the democratic process are slim. And there is a counter-example to Iran – Turkey.
Rather what we are most likely to witness now is the revival of Arab nationalism, coming particularly from the new Egypt and extending around it. This will be a non-chauvinistic, legitimate nationalism, based on a new-found pride...
Read entire article at Financial Times (UK)
How events in the Arab world will evolve is of course uncertain. What is certain, however, is that we in the west have to adjust to a new reality: an Arab world that will be more nationalistic.
For now, the west is frightening itself with the spectre of political Islam. It is premature to say a solution has been found to avoid moving from the overthrow of authoritarian regimes to sinking into Islamism, but no expert on the Arab world foresees a scenario à la Iran which took everyone by surprise, including Iranians. Islamic parties will emerge stronger from free elections, but the chances that they will seek to hijack the democratic process are slim. And there is a counter-example to Iran – Turkey.
Rather what we are most likely to witness now is the revival of Arab nationalism, coming particularly from the new Egypt and extending around it. This will be a non-chauvinistic, legitimate nationalism, based on a new-found pride...