Word: arab
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Ismael, a political science professor at the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) is the author of several previous books on Middle Eastern politics. He offers a concise guide to the labyrinthine "Arab Left" and its evolution into what he identifies--unclearly until almost the end of the book--as the "New Arab Left." Ismael's study maps out the origins and development of several specific "Leftist" organizations, summarizes their ideological and organizational roots and then briefly discusses the transition to a "New Left." The author unifies separate essays on several organizations by analyzing each group's response to three common...
Ismael traces the evolution of leftist political organization from the Arab nationalist movement of the pre-World War II era--essentially an elitist, liberalist, Western-looking intellectual discipline--to the growth of socialist doctrine in the Arab world. He is careful to dissociate Arab "socialism" and "communism" from their terminological counterparts elsewhere. Arab socialists have often advocated private ownership (albeit regulated) as necessary for economic development; Arab communists have been wary of aligning themselves with communist states, preferring instead to regard Marxist-Leninist dogma as a malleable, practical tool for national progress and liberation rather than as an ideological ultimate...
...stressing the difficulties of clearly identifying an "Arab Left" the author points out the dangers of political labels in general. First, political labels in the Arab world are not necessarily comparable to those elsewhere; second, it is difficult to define what being "leftist" actually means in Egyptian, Syrian, or Iraqi politics. After scanning the turbulent skies of this aspect of Arab politics, no matter how clearly it is presented, one begins to regret ever having used the terms "right" and "left" for any political grouping, anywhere...
...response to the failure of pro-Palestinian forces in 1967 to wage war successfully against Israel and the forces of world (mostly U.S.) imperialism which she represents to the "New Left." While the roots--and, indeed, the actual formation--of various leftist groups had become implanted in the Arab world a decade before the June 1967 War, the failure of those groups to clearly define and/or implement their ideology had generated political weakness and ideological dissatisfaction...
...sense of political impotence created a multiplicity of new formations, as organizations like the Ba'ath and the Arab Nationalist Movement, which had tried to embrace all manner of political belief under their own banners, split under the pressures of new demands, new political methods, and an increasing attention to stricter ideological definition. Thus, the "New Arab Left," which Ismael finally defines as "those new parties and/or organizations that publicly and unequivocally declare adherence to Marxism-Leninism" is the offspring of political events and older organizations which intensified dissatisfaction with the status quo, rather than quelling...