Chen Decheng

Senior research fellow of IWAAS

Globalization is an expansive and irreversible trend in history that goes beyond national and continental borders. At this moment, it is largely an economic phenomenon, with its influence also reaching political and cultural areas. Contemporary nationalism, as a theory and movement concerning the birth and development of nation states, loyally serves its own nation and national interests. Fundamentally, globalization and contemporary nationalism are irreconcilable and even diametrically opposite to each other. But given the fact that globalization is a ramification of the institutions of nation states and a long-time existence, while nation states will remain to be the most universal, mature and effective political unit in human society for a considerably long period of time, therefore it is natural that the two phenomena will have complex relations such as co-existence, interplay, mutual-complimentarity and replacement. Contemporary nationalism is an important ideology for nation states, and the prevailing ideology for emerging nation states. The relations between globalization and nation states, particularly emerging nation states are bound to be deeply and distinctively reflected in the contemporary nationalism.

Section 1 Reflections on Contemporary Nationalism in the Middle East

With the passage of time, nationalism in the Middle East evolves from traditional to the contemporary. To further divide it, the former includes the ancient nationalism and mid-ancient nationalism, while the latter includes the modern nationalism and contemporary nationalism. Traditional and contemporary nationalism are mainly distinguished as follows: the former emphasizes that the sovereignty is bestowed by God as opposed to by people as maintained by the latter; the former aligns itself with dynastic states, while the latter with the interests of motherland; and the former believes in subjects of dynasty, while the latter in citizens of motherland. History told that the economic internationalization, as the predecessor of globalization, played a heavy influence in and left its mark on the forming and evolution of the nationalism in the Middle East.

1. The first high-tide of economic internationalization and the emergence of nationalism in the Middle East

The economic internationalization is referred to cross-border economic activities with international relevance and impact. It is largely reflected in international trade and investment. The first high-tide of economic internationalization came from the mid 1890s until the First World War, lasting about 20 years. In the year 1913, the capital outflow from UK rose to 90% of its GDP that year. In the early 20^th century, the export of capital from Germany, France and the Netherlands to Russia, the Middle East and the colonies of these three countries climbed up. When describing the international economic dynamics prior to the WWI, economist Keynes said, the inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth… he could at the same moment and by the same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new enterprises of any quarter of the world, and share, without exertion or even trouble, in their prospective fruits and advantages. [1]

It deserves our attention that the economic internationalization those days ran within the framework of capitalist economy and colonialism led by a few colonial countries. Therefore, very complicated influence was cast upon colonies and semi-colonies, particularly in the Middle East. The investment of Colonial countries in the Middle East was mainly in the form of loan capital and productive capital, with the former referred to public debt and loan, and the latter referred to investment in operating enterprises (mostly in the non-production sector). A battery of foreign banks then had completely controlled Egypt’s finance; Turkey was heavily indebted, with its annual government revenue less than half of the foreign debt due in the same year; In Lebanon, railroads, public utilities and banks were mostly owned or managed by French investors; In Syria, the France-sponsored Syrian and Lebanese banks monopolized the right of money issuing. Moreover, extremely unfair terms of trade were written out between colonial countries and their colonies and semi-colonies. Egypt, for example, was allowed to grow cotton only. Middle East’s oil was also exported to colonial countries cheaply. The economic internationalization led by colonial countries, on the one hand, harshly exploited the Middle East countries and exacerbated their backwardness, thus escalating the national crisis there; and on the other hand, it played a historic role in undermining the patriarch-based natural economy, pushing the feudalistic autocracy into deeper crisis.

Contemporary nationalism in the Middle East budded in the early 1800s and took shape between mid 1800s and early 1900s, experiencing two-century ups and downs. Its evolution can be roughly divided into four stages: ① cradle period (early 1800s to early 20^th century); ② all-round development (1905-late 1960s); ③ setback and adjustment (early 1970s to early 1980s); and ④ further development (mid 1980s to date). Undoubtedly, the first high-tide of economic internationalization drove various ethnic groups in the Middle East into exacerbated crisis of survival, thus fuelling the formation and initial development of the contemporary nationalism in this area. The political elites and intellectuals of the Middle East countries recognizes that only when the people were mobilized and united as a strong national political force to fight against Western colonial powers, can they be stay away from crises and disasters. This accounts for the emergence and development of the nationalism in Egypt, Turkey and Persia, as well as Pan-Arabism and Pan-Turkism. There were usually three stages in their development: ① putting national customs together and promoting cultural traditions; ② building nationalistic ideology and mobilizing social forces; and ③ shifting from seeking cultural rejuvenation to political pursuit and challenging the political authority. The imbalanced development and uneven distribution essentially triggered the WWI, which later gave rise to the first boom in the fight against imperialism and feudalism. This boom was supported by Kemal’s Revolution (1919-1923), the Third Anglo-Afghan War (1919-1921), anti-British movement in Iran (1919-1921) and The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 (1919-1924) etc. It should be particularly mentioned that the Kemalism emerged in this period stood out on the world stage as a theoretic, systemic and integral ideology. In addition, the Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia also has rich content.

2. The second high-tide of economic internationalization and the development of nationalism in the Middle East

The years from 1950 to 1973 witnessed the high tide of new technology revolution came in after the WWII. Technology revolution led to jumping productivity, improved transport vehicles, growing information technology and fast-expanding globe-wide communication, bringing in another boom of economic internationalization. It is noteworthy that the communist movement expanded across national borders in this period, and a number of socialist countries and a powerful socialist camp were founded. In these two decades, the world economy averaged an unprecedented annual growth rate of 4.9%. The main feature of this period was the establishment of international financial and trade regimes hinged on America’s power, plus the sprawl of multinational companies, particularly American ones. [2] Meanwhile, it should be noted that the economic internationalization also developed from unilaterally to multilaterally, where socialist countries and emerging nation states played an increasingly important role.

This round of economic internationalization boom was clearly reflected in the Middle East countries. First, the international trade kept on growing. The average annual imports increased by 8.2% from 1950 to 1960 and 7.4% from 1960 to 1970 in West Asia, 4.6% from 1950 to 1960 and 2.9% from 1960 to 1970 in North Africa, and 11.3% from 1950 to 1960 and 9.3% from 1960 to 1970 in 西亚? Second, the US and the Soviet Union continuously expanded their investment in the Middle East. For example, Turkey received 350 million USD from Western governments and private enterprises each year during the years from 1963 to 1967. In 1967, the Soviet Union offered Turkey a 200 million USD loan, with 2.5% annual interest rate and 15-year maturity. The Soviet Union also loaned Egypt 400 million Rbls with 2.5% annual interest rate to fund the Phase 1 construction of the Aswan Dam. In August 1960, the Russians agreed to provide another 900 million Rbls of loan on the same terms with that of Phase 1 to complete the construction of the dam. In 1964, the Soviet Union provided 250 million Rbls for Egypt’s first five-year economic plan. In 1959, the US extended the United Arab Republic a development loan of 16 million. In June 1962, the US Agency for International Development offered Egypt 10 million USD worth of loan to finance the country to buy American goods. From 1954 to 1967, America’s loan and donation to Iran totaled 1.9 billion USD. Third, activities of multinational companies were very active. The seven multinational oil giants, otherwise known as “seven sisters” build a huge scale of international oil industry, manipulating the world oil market and controlling the lifeline of oil exporting countries for a considerable period of time after the WWII. Their managers flew from Pittsburgh to Kuwait, from San Francisco to Saudi Arabia, as if traveling on the land under their own jurisdiction. These companies’ revenues were larger than revenues of most countries where they extracted oil. The tonnage of their oil shipping fleet was beyond that of any navy in the world. They owned and ran entire cities in desert. They had entire chains of production, processing and sales, in no need of help from others. [3]

This round of economic internationalization boom was led by developed countries with the US at the center and developed against the backdrop of US-USSR competition for hegemony. It dwelled on such prerequisites as the cease of the WWII, the utter failure of Japan and Germany, the setbacks suffered by Britain and France, and the adoption of the UN resolution on decolonization. These facts did not only fuelled directly a more profound revolution and ensuing national liberation movements touching almost all the Middle East countries through 1950s to 1960s, but also set the course and modality for these countries in their modernization and development. Contemporary nationalism in the Middle East rose to its peak since the end of the WWII until the Middle East war of 1967. During this period of history, revolutions took place in most of the already independent countries to overthrow the feudalism and found the republics, such as the July Revolution of 1952 in Egypt, the March Revolution of 1954 in Syria, the July Revolution of Iraq and the 9.26 Revolution of North Yemen in 1962 etc. Meanwhile, a batch of colonized countries won their independence either through armed struggles or through peaceful means. For instance, after 7 years of tough war against France, the Democratic People’s Republic of Algeria was founded in 1962; the Republic of Yemen was founded in 1967. As these countries got rid of colonial rule differently, they later chose different strategies to development. For those who won their independence through revolution or the already independent countries whose monarchy was toppled by force, they generally took the non-capitalist road. Instead, for the countries gaining their independence through peaceful means, they are generally more reliant on international capital. Despite this difference, all the countries gave prominence to economic modernization since they shifted focus from winning independence to social development. They generally adopted a domestically oriented strategy to development. This, in effect, was a reverse reaction to this new round of economic internationalization. However, no matter how domestically oriented their strategies were, these countries were bound to forge ties with economic internationalization, only of much restricted size and scale. Contemporary nationalism in the Middle East at this time transformed from the nationalism safeguarding sovereign rights, opposing intervention and invasion and promoting national integration to the nationalism exploring ways to get rid of poverty and achieve national prosperity. Typical examples include Nasserism, Baath Party-led nationalism, Arabic nationalism and Zionism.

3. Characteristics of Contemporary Nationalism in the Middle East

The unique characteristics of contemporary nationalism in the Middle East can be summarized as follows:

(1)   Responsiveness

Different from Western cotemporary nationalism, the nationalism in the Middle East did not arise out of the internal urge and demand when the national economy developed to a certain stage, nor out of the community’s recognition of the liberal value. It arose from the nation’s response to crisis of survival. Therefore, it’s markedly featured by the “responsiveness”. So it can also be called a “defensive” nationalism. It was spurred by the national crises and developed as a response to challenges in proportion to the pressures from the outside. Its aim was to drive away colonial forces from the Middle East, but also to learn from the West to gain national prosperity.

(2)   Religion-based

Compared with “defensive” nationalism in some backward countries, the Middle East’s contemporary nationalism in general had a close bond with religions (to different degrees depending on specific branches of nationalism), particularly with Islam and Judaism. This is because of the worldliness of Islam and its huge influence on the people in the Middle East. The Judaism instilled Jews with a strong and shared thought, which promoted the solidarity of Jews and served as an important mentor for the Jewish nationalism. The Cultural tradition in the region was marked by a strong religious Salvationism, evidenced by Islam’s advocate of the last judgment and Judaism’s belief in Messiahism. Apart from the Kemalism, most of the nationalism in the Middle East took religions as one of its integral part. Religions were integrated into the doctrine and made used of, serving the fundamental goals of the nationalism. The Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia was an exception, where religious identity and national identity were equally valued.

(3)   Anti-imperialism

Contemporary nationalism in the Middle East was generally anti-imperialistic and anti-colonialistic. Motivated by it, lengthy and tough struggles were carried out to win national independence over colonial countries. After their founding, nation states usually adopted domestically oriented development strategies and protection policies, in attempts to cut off attachments with their original colonial countries. The governments supporting colonialism and imperialism were generally deemed to be incapable of safeguarding national interests and lacking legitimacy. They were either overthrown soon or entrapped in a succession of crises. In the Middle East, the establishment of national identity, the founding of nation states and the development of national economy were in lockstep with struggling against colonialism and imperialism, freeing from the control of developed countries and dismantling old international politics and economic order. It was a fact that some nationalism was less apparently anti-imperialistic, but it was still reluctant to accept the control of developed countries. The efforts to resist came out from time to time.

(4) Centralization of power

Generally speaking, the nucleus of the Western nationalism is idea of personal rights. The idea constituted the driving force of nationalism movements. In the 18^th century, the French nationalism expanded the scope of personal rights, maintaining the social personal rights while advancing the rights of interest groups, i.e. their rights to build nation states. The underdevelopment in the Middle East made social elites, including intellectuals, progressive military officers and liberal monarchs etc, “carriers” of the contemporary nationalism in the region. Since the nationalism movements in the Middle East were mainly ignited at the critical juncture of national survival, national interest-over-personal rights idea was prevalent as a result. In addition, the social elites displayed remarkable leadership in the nationalism movements, making many of them figures of charisma. In the long course after nation states were founded, the centralization of power was a usual practice, reflected in the long-term existence of military junta, single-party regime and autocrat monarchy. Loyalty to the country and nation, obedience to the government, maintaining order and stability, sacrificing personal rights for collective interests were basic elements of the contemporary nationalism in the Middle East.

(5)   Championing economic independence and development

The contemporary nationalism in the Middle East had always pursuing independence. The political independence was its initial goal. After this goal was accomplished, it directed the focus on economic independence and economic development. The primary objectives included: enjoying effective control and full sovereignty over the nation’s natural resources and economic lifeline; developing the nation’s economy independently and getting rid of foreign powers’ control; doing international trade on fair and reasonable terms; and taking measures to manage and regulate the activities of multinational companies. In summary, it took economic development, modernization of the nation and reducing the gap with the developed countries as the major tasks, attaching great importance to the leverage role of nations and governments in economic development with proper integration of market economy to build up national strength based on economic prosperity.

(6)   Thriving of transnational nationalism

Another characteristic of the contemporary nationalism in the Middle East was the thriving of transnational nationalism. The transnational nationalism is referred to the nationalism that spreads to more than one country, or what are otherwise called pan-nationalism or broad nationalism. The transnational nationalism was in two forms. In its first form, the dominating ethnic group in a country tires to govern the same ethnic group inhabiting in other countries and take the land where the people live. Turkish nationalism is a case in point. In its second form, countries inhabited by people from the same ethnic group, speaking the same language try to unite as a single country, a federation or other forms of association. The examples are Pan-Arabism and Pan-Turkism. The Pan-Arabism is the most vibrant, influential and multi-faceted. Today’s Pan-Arabism puts more emphasis on cooperation and collaboration among countries in political, cultural and particularly economic areas. As for the Pan-Turkism, it suffered a fatal blow at the end of the WWI, but reared its head after the Cold War. In addition, there have also been ideological trends of this kind prevailing on a smaller scale in the Middle East, such as the Pan-Syrianism.

(7)   Conspicuous religious nationalism

Contemporary nationalism in the Middle East encompasses the theoretically sound religious nationalism, e.g. the Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia mentioned above and the Iranian Khomeinism to be discussed later. The religious nationalism is a special form of contemporary nationalism that is commonly secular and believes in the separation of church and state. The most distinctive feature of the religious nationalism is the integral combination of religion and nationalism and their deep mutual influence on each other. Its hallmark is the integration of church and state and direct interference of religion with politics. There are two core values imbedded in the religious nationalism, namely the modern nation state and the dominating religion. It is nationalistic and religious respectively because it believes in nation state and is guided by religious ideology.

Section 2 Contemporary Nationalism in the Middle East under the Globalization

The new technological revolution centered on the information technology made continuous progress in the late 1990s, rapidly transforming economic internationalization to globalization. Today’s globalization is first an economic process, and will definitely reach our to political and cultural areas as this process moves forward. Given that the globalization is still largely an economic phenomenon, the interplay between economic globalization and contemporary nationalism in the Middle East should be the focus of our studies. The materials now available unveiled the complex relationship between the two.

1.      Globalization brings about both challenges and opportunities.

Prior to the 1960s, the secular nationalism in the Middle East had gradually developed to the most attractive ideology in the region and been broadly accepted. In contrast, the religious nationalism lost its momentum in face of the new trend of times. But since the 1970s, the Islamic Revival Movement took the center and finally engendered outbreak of Islamic Revolution of 1979 and formation of the Khomeinism, delivering a heavy blow to the secular nationalism. With the coming of the 1980s, both the secularism and religious nationalism in the Middle East felt the heavy impact of globalization. This brought in serious challenges and unprecedented opportunities.

(1) About the sovereignty of nation states

On top of the political agenda of contemporary nationalism in the Middle East is to establish a sovereign state, as an expression of national will, to protect and promote national solidarity and interests, maintain the loyalty of citizens to the state and safeguard political independence and sovereignty. The sovereignty of a nation is reflected typically by its free exercise of state power without foreign intervention. Once any hard constraint is imposed from the outside, the national sovereignty gets eroded. The emergence of globalization inevitably cast its impact on the belief of sovereignty upheld by the contemporary nationalism in the Middle East and weakened the national sovereignty. Since the globalization is a global issue, its development and influence are beyond the control of any single country. The contemporary nationalism in the Middle East naturally encountered such a dilemma: the erosion of sovereignty builds up risks and undermines the country’s resistance, while refusing the weakened sovereignty denies the country access to globalization, a result incurs domestic opposition. These two ends of the spectrum are both detrimental to economic development. Pressures coming from within and outside force a country to relinquish part of its sovereignty. But still, globalization puts higher demand on a country’s adaptability, requiring it to be more able and skilled in dealing with globalization and market economy, and in handling emergency incidents and various risks. As a result, it is somehow necessary and possible for a country to expand its state powers.

(2)   About the development strategy

Contemporary nationalism in the Middle East is mainly about pursuing economic independence and development. In the long course after their founding, nation states in the Middle East generally adopted an inward-looking strategy, featuring heavy-handed protection of domestic businesses and state intervention. They tried to get control of their own natural resources and economic lifeline by taking protection measure. They launched a storm of campaigns to nationalize foreign businesses and support domestic businesses to replace foreign ones. This development strategy played a major role to the economy and development of the nation states in the region, but also left considerable drawbacks. This sort of strategy ignored the principle of international division of labor, eroded the competitiveness of the national economy and put checks on the growth of the market system, thus throwing the national industry into the vicious circle of “protection-enlarged gap-protection again”. In the globalization era, sovereign states and international economic organizations are supposed to work to promote the socialization of production and international division of labor by signing agreements and formulating rules. They are also expected to go beyond national borders and barriers to put in place market-oriented and open-ended development. However, the role of state is still big, neither is nor will be replaced by globalization. States can create a sound legal and financial environment in favor of development, support domestic enterprises to participate in international competitions, and ensure the best available fair environment for enterprises to grow in. States are giving more input helping domestic enterprise acquire market shares overseas and are able to play a vital role in the area of global industrial policies that benefit economic development and public institutions.

(3)   About democratic politics

Since ancient times, the Middle East politics has been notably featured by the centralization of power and the rule of man. The authoritarianism is still influential even today. So the centralization of power distinguishes itself in contemporary nationalism prevailing in the region, which calls for loyalty to the nation and state as much as loyalty to the leader. The core of today’s globalization is the economic globalization, which is based on the market economy and in turn promotes the market economy and the single market worldwide. The market economy is associated with checks and balances of power and political pluralism, and sets store by personal rights. As a result, the institutions of power centralization will inevitably be challenged. Besides, today’s globalization is still led by developed countries, whose parliamentary democracy, separation of powers and multi-party system also put the modern nationalism in the Middle East under strict scrutiny. It is true that the collective democracy advocated by the nationalism is justifiable and still vibrant, but the ignorance to personal rights is its limitation that should be overcome.

(4)   About the national culture

Nation states in the Middle East are founded on their own cultures. It is an important part of the contemporary nationalism in the region to inherit and carry on the national cultures. The contemporary nationalism in the Middle East questions the authority and rule of colonial countries by citing the national history, reshapes the national confidence by promoting the national culture and resists the pressure of alien culture’s invasion with its own culture. These efforts help safeguard the cultural sovereignty of a nation and advance the nation’s revitalization. The globalization in the first place poses enormous challenges to national cultures, because what it promotes is the holistic culture of humanity and the culture of universality. Cultural assimilation is the inexorable trend of history, unstoppable by any force. In addition, western countries, as the leading force and pilot of globalization, are incapable to turn back the trend, but they still have a major impact. The western culture encompasses fine elements of freedom, democracy and science, but also entails colonialism, extreme individualism, unhealthy pattern of consumption and corrupted way of life. Therefore, the influence of western culture is complicated. It erodes cultures of other nations, but the globalization it leads still facilitates the development of national cultures: first, globalization enriches national cultures; second, it promotes the prosperity of national cultures; and third, it expands the interaction among different cultures. Multi-faceted national cultures will be in existence for a long course in history.

2.      The adjustment of contemporary nationalism in the Middle East.

First of all, it should be recognized that the globalization has a far and wide influence on the contemporary nationalism in the Middle East. But the globalization is not able yet to threaten the existence of it. As previously indicated, the region’s nationalism has two major types, the secular nationalism and the religious nationalism. It is necessary to further break down these two types in order to be better updated on the development of the region’s nationalism against the background of globalization. The secular nationalism in the Middle East can be divided into 3 sub-types: first, the liberal nationalism, e.g. the Zionism and the Turkism; second, the extreme nationalism, e.g. Baath Party-led nationalism and “Third Universal Theory”; and third, the moderate nationalism, e.g. Egyptian nationalism, Tunisian nationalism and Moroccan nationalism. As for the religious nationalism in the Middle East, it has two sects, the Sunni and the Shiah. It should be pointed out that today’s nationalism in the Middle East mainly expresses itself in the form of state nationalism. The transnational nationalism is only of secondary importance.

In general, the secular nationalism is more adaptive to the globalization than the religious nationalism. Within the bracket of secular nationalism, the adaptability to globalization is going down in the order of liberal, moderate and extreme nationalism. As the religious nationalism is concerned, the Sunni nationalism demonstrates more resilience to globalization than the Shia nationalism. The transnational nationalism shows both adaptability and resistance to globalization.

(1) Secular nationalism

A. Liberal nationalism

The liberal nationalism in the Middle East is most open-minded to globalization. As the official ideology of Israel, the Zionism took on the following new features: ① defending freedom and human rights. Israel underwent major constitutional reform in 1992, with the adoption by the country’s parliament of Basic Law: freedom of occupation and Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. [4] ② reducing excessive government intervention in the economy and giving the market force a greater role. Since the mid 1980s, Israel began to restructure its economy by taking the following steps, deregulating financial industry and foreign exchange market, adopting free trade policy and revamping or privatizing public sector.[5] ③ giving great importance and support to the development of high-tech sector. The Israeli government invested heavily in the R&D of high-tech sector. The ratio of investment in R&D for civilian use to GDP was among the world’s highest. To promote the development of high-tech sector, the Israeli government promulgated Encouragement of industrial R&D in Israel, a law that is enforced by the Chief Scientist Office under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The priority of the Office is to finance the high-tech industry and pave its way to international market. With its high-tech sector leading the world in many areas, Israel has become a high-tech power catching the world’s eye and one of the world centers of new technology. The high-tech industry in Israel emerged in the 1980s and experienced development in the 1990s. Its sophisticated, multi-faceted and highly efficient high-tech sector has been driving the high growth of the country’s economy. The Turkish nationalism also shows adaptability to globalization. In its history of development, the Kemalism was a significant milestone. The doctrine’s essence such as separation of church and government and independence of sovereignty were inherited and advanced by its successors, as evidence by the development from one-party system to multi-party system and improvement of democracy and rule of law and adoption of the open-door economic policy. It should be noted that Turkish carried out economic reform since the 1980s with the help from the World Band and International Monetary Fund. The economic stabilization plan and economic restructuring plan were implemented, making the economy more outward-looking, market-based, liberal and privatized. The Turkish authorities improved the market economy, worked for the EU accession and maintained the country’s independence and sovereignty while becoming more flexible and libertarian.

B. Moderate nationalism

Countries taking moderate nationalism as their ideology are in the majority in the Middle East region, including countries like Egypt that adopted extreme nationalism in the 1950s and 60s. The moderate nationalism is featured by pragmatism, flexibility, responsiveness to trend of times and spontaneity. But sometimes it also demonstrates its passive side.

First, the traditional concept of sovereignty was quietly changed.

For the moderate nationalism, the concept of sovereignty is no longer ossified and rigid, instead it became relative, mobile and flexible. Necessary adjustments and concessions were made while safeguarding sovereignty and independence, so as to get maximal benefits of globalization. The sovereignty and independence were truly protected by doing this, otherwise, the countries would have been further marginalized and gone to self-destruction. In the past two decades, these countries successively implements open-door strategies, entailing the weakened state power of administering territory and resources. Involved in the globalization, the decision-making right that used to be in the category of sovereignty was relinquished. Multinational companies were disliked and expelled in the past, but now they are welcome and offered various favorable treatments. Such a change naturally disrupts the increment of a nation’s economic right. In the process of globalization, some countries joined in a number of international treaties, such as WTO entry agreement, which also undercut national sovereignty and bind the countries to observe the treaties by taking away from them certain powers and rights. The violation of treaties constitutes an outright contradiction to their own commitments, which should definitely be opposed by other parties to the treaty. The boom of various free economic zones devoted to promoting the commerce and trade, industry or technology etc, also weakens the economic sovereignty of a nation. The financial globalization broadly spreads, but the side effect of it is that the ability of countries to adjust their economies by using currency and exchange is constrained. Countries are exploring Internet as the source of information, leaving an impact on the traditional culture and undermining the cultural sovereignty. The above facts present us a picture in which the concept of sovereignty championed by the contemporary nationalism has already changed a lot from its traditional version, i.e. giving up or relinquishing part of state power, mainly the power to administer the economy, to get the maximal interests from globalization. Such a change proves to be a wise one.

Second, being adaptive to economic globalization.

The moderate nationalism in the Middle East generally adapts to globalization in an active manner, with the belief that the trend of globalization is irreversible and unavoidable. Domestic reforms, particularly economic reforms should be accelerated to match this ongoing trend. Economy has always been on top of the agenda, but the focus of which has been shifted from pursuing economic independence to achieving economic development. Following steps have been taken to reform the economy and open wider to the outside world: first, restructuring the economy by loosening the excessive government controls, encouraging private investment and the development of private sector, and privatizing the state-owned companies to various degrees; second, adopting an oversea-oriented economic strategy, e.g. the Gulf Cooperation Council, in its free trade policies, scrapped restrictions on imports and state monopoly on most of the basic goods and gave incentives to exports. Many Arab countries tried to integrate their own economies into the world economy by seriously observing the clauses agreed upon during the Uruguay round of negotiation; third, providing a new investment environment. Many Middle East countries prepared a large amount of laws on investment and patent law, reduced restrictions selectively on investment, and gave protection to IPR in order to attract investors and exporters of sophisticated goods; fourth, some Middle East countries worked actively to acquire membership of major world economic groups led by the developed countries. Much more negotiated with the EU for the establishment of free trade areas, directly involved themselves in the process of globalization; and fifth, investing heavily in high-tech sector. Many countries became aware of the importance of information technology and promoted it by accelerating modernization. Egypt, for example, put forward the slogan “giving modern technology priority for the revitalization of Egyptian civilization”. Since 1999, the country started to enforce the 5-year plan for the IT industry as a national project, and cooperated with European and American companies to train 5000 IT engineers each year. In the plan also included an IT park be set up in the suburb of Cairo. In Egypt, the output of IT industry grew 17% in 2000. The country’s Internet users in 2001 doubled the figure in 2000 and rose to 600,000. For another example, Democratic Constitutional Rally, the ruling party of Tunisia, initiated a program in July 2000 to beef up education and training, get prepared for knowledge economy, promote the culture of digital technology and step into the information society. It works actively to turn the globalization in its favor and accelerate the modernization drive. Saudi Arabia is the country most enthusiastic in developing the IT industry. An industrial park named the City of Internet was opened in Dubai in November 2000, where 180 companies from countries like US invested in here and IBM and Microsoft respectively set up their data centers and regional headquarters.

Third, democratic politics moves on.

Contemporary nationalism derives from the endeavor to fight against feudal autocracy. Therefore, it carries the democratic elements since its very beginning. The core of western nationalism is personal rights and universal human rights, while the contemporary nationalism in the Middle East advocates collective rights instead of personal rights since it came into existence, first pursing political independence and then economic independence. With the tide of globalization came in, the moderate nationalism in the Middle East gave more attention to personal rights, while maintaining its advocacy on collective rights. As a result, political autocracy gradually gave its way to democracy. In republics like Egypt and Tunisia, one-party system was replaced by multi-party system. Even in monarchies like Morocco, Jordan and Kuwait, multi-party parliaments were established. It should be pointed out that after the change of leadership in some Middle East countries, the political democracy remained their major goal. For example, when King Mohammed IV ascended the throng of Morocco, he continued to advance the democracy. He left some strategic departments, mainly financial departments, in the hands of some 40-something young officials, and even appointed a woman as the director of imperial court office. He reduced penalties for 46,212 prisoners, among which 8,000 were released from prison. The new king also gave media a relatively pressure-free environment. [6] For another example, the new King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein of Jordan established an economic advisory council, with most of the members being young business leaders, as a means to expand people’s participation in politics. Since the end of the Iraq War, the US pushed on around the region its Greater Middle East Initiative, putting more pressures on the Middle East countries for political democracy.

Fourth, protection and development of national culture

Over recent years, countries worldwide have been committed to protecting and developing their respective national cultures. They believed that globalization is an unavoidable trend and has its obvious impact on cultures, particularly on national cultures that are deemed as the foundation and soul of nations. A positive attitude responsive to the trend of times shall be adopted in protecting and developing national cultures with attention given to the cultural innovation and exchange. In the case of Egypt, the country improved its cultural institutions and culture-related legal framework, advocated cultural innovation, and promoted dialogues and exchanges between civilizations in efforts to resolve cultural conflicts. And in countries represented by Tunisia, government funds for culture were increased. At the same time, a tendency to learn from the Western culture emerged, especially to learn from the Western science, technology, democracy and rule of law, while standing firmly against its corrupted way of life and extreme individualism. Egypt’s minister of culture said in 1994 that the country should win the cultural war with the West. In the year 2000, President Mubarak of Egypt proposed a national project for the 21 century, giving modern technology priority for the revitalization of Egyptian civilization and trying to equally advancing the protection on the ancient civilization and the development of modern science and technology.

It should be noted, however, that these countries have multiple concerns in the process of globalization. They take a wait-and-see attitude when taking steps to move forward. They try to be adaptive, but apparently still passive.

C.     Extreme nationalism

The extreme nationalism in the Middle East is mainly composed of Baath Party-led nationalism and “Third Universal Theory”. As early as 1950s and 60s, these two schools of thoughts had already gained their influence in the Middle Ease. Since it maintains to take power by armed struggles, the extreme nationalism is sharply distinguished itself from the nationalism that advocates peaceful reforms. With decades of evolution, particularly having been impacted by the waves of globalization in the past twenty years, the extreme branch of nationalism is now much less extreme, but it remains a school of thought riddled with clear elements of extremism. As the Baath Party regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled by the US by force in 2003, the Baath Party-led nationalism had been seriously undermined, only left small residual forces fighting against foreign occupation.

① Baath Party-led nationalism

After Saddam Hussein regime was overthrown, the Baath Party-led nationalism could only be found in Syria. The globalization cannot presently dismantle its extremism, but undoubtedly turns the extreme nationalism into a moderate direction.

First, engaged in economic adjustment and reform.

Syria promulgated the Investment Law No 10 in the year 1991, stipulating that a broad range of concessions and incentive conditions shall be provided to Syrian nationals, Arabs and foreigners who invested in the country. Later, a number of adjustment and reform steps were taken mainly to stop the exchange rate going down. Reforms were carried out in the ways to administer foreign trade, encouraging a bigger role of private businesses in imports and exports. The private sector was also expanded in much more exports-oriented economy. When Bashar al-Assad was in charge of the Syria’s information department, he moved the country a step further in the direction of globalization by introducing the Internet on restrictive terms. When he became the Syrian president, Bashar expanded the access to Internet and computer by the people. But of course the economic adjustment and reform moved on very slowly. In Syria, the state-owned economy is still being protected and enjoys an increasing monopoly in the strategic areas of the economy. Many websites are still blocked. Free sending of emails is restricted. The expense of going online is amazingly high.

Second, political democracy began to be valued.

In the latter part of the al-Assad administration, the control on society was lessened, as al-Assad indicated that the political power should be accessible by and stay with citizens. [7] Since Mr. Bashar al-Assad took office, the atmosphere of the country has changed, encouraging the rise of political debate. The state-owned newspapers nowadays carry readers’ letters criticizing the government. In August 2000, 3 cabinet ministers showed up in TV to debate on public finance. [8]

② Third Universal Theory

The Third Universal Theory, also known as the Third Universal International Theory or the Third Theory, was proposed by Mr. Gaddafi when he was giving an interview to the journalist from the Egyptian Newspaper Pyramid in May 1973. Today, Libya still upholds this theory. The theory already became relatively liberal and was renewed against the background of globalization.

First, opening the economy to certain extent.

As early as the end of 1996, Gaddafi called for reform on the highly state-controlled economy by taking measures such as devising a more flexible exchange rate for previously overpriced Dinar, expanding access to foreign trade and privatizing some enterprises. It has always been the policy since 1998 to open the economy to private sector. As a result, almost each day has been witnessing the opening of private companies, particularly in the retail sector. International investors were invited back to Libya and business negotiations were accelerated. Today, state ownership, collective ownership and private ownership coexist in Libya. [9]

Second, restructuring the government and creating a relaxed political environment.

When giving priority to economic reform, Mr. Gaddafi also carried our political reform. In the summer of 2000, he took moves to downsize the government and delegate more power to local governments and the General People’s Congress. Meanwhile, the number of cabinet ministers decreased from 22 to 9. The Congress had a bigger role to supervise the government. In addition, a more relaxed political environment gave the people greater freedom of speech and freedom of movement. [10]

Third, in terms of the international relations, the Third Universal Theory remains extremist in nature. It advocates economic opening-up while criticizing the colonialism, invites in foreign investment while unveiling the foreign investors as the source of many world problems, tries to normalize the country’s international relations while exposing the hypocrisy of Western countries for their dual-standards and expands democracy while persisting with the centralization of power. In practice, however, the behaviors of Libya took on a new look. In 1999, it handed over suspects of Lockerbie air disaster and agreed to provide huge compensation for the victims and victims of the Air France flight crash in Niger in 1989. In 2004, Libya gave up its program for the development of weapons of mass destruction, which prompted the UN and US to lift their sanctions imposed on the country. In 2005, the US oil companies were allowed to return to the domestic market of Libya. The above events indicated that `Libya’s positions are gradually changed when handling its relations with the West in the age of globalization. The influence of the extremist Third Universal Theory is diminishing when handling international relations.

(2)   Religious nationalism

A. Sunni branch of religious nationalism in Saudi Arabia

The Sunni branch of religious nationalism, or the Wahabi nationalism to be more exact, is the leading ideology in Saudi Arabia. In face of the challenges of globalization, it has been constantly renewing and enriching itself.

First, advancing reform and opening-up prudently.

Saudi Arabia took the following measures to reform its economy: ①implementing privatization programs. The privatization of the telecommunication industry was launched in the year 1994 and completed in 1998, which also marked the completion of privatization process in the country; ②restructuring and diversifying the economy to change the situation where the oil income was the sole pillar of the economy; ③improving the investment environment, formulating rules attractive to foreign investor and applying tax exemptions on a temporary basis to foreign investors who expanded their investment in the country. ④lifting the ban on internet usage by Saudi nationals in 1999. A picture showing the member of the loyal family using the computer mouse was published on a newspaper, which was signal to encourage the nationals to forge ahead the IT revolution; and ⑤creating conditions for the future accession into the WTO. Saudis believed that being excluded from the WTO, the county would be left behind.

Second, increasing political participation, advocating the rule of law and respecting human rights.

On 21 August, 1993, King Fahd announced the establishment of 60-peole consultative council staffed by 5 religious figures, 30 doctor degree holders, members from prestige families, minority Shia Muslim representatives, scholars, entrepreneurs, military officers both in and out of service, and senior government officials. This move enlarged the access to and opportunities of political participation. Previously on February 29, 1992, King Fahd convened a ministers’ meeting, on which three significant legal documents were adopted, namely the Basic Law of Government, Consultative Council Establishment Act and Regulations on the Provincial System, showing the rule of law had taken its roots in the country. In the spring of 2001, reform measures were introduced to areas of judicial, legislative and trade. Four international treaties concerning the protection of human rights and the opposition to discrimination were ratified by Saudi Arabia that year. [11]

Wahabism is the guiding ideology in Saudi Arabia and its interpretations of Islamic doctrines are the source of state legitimacy. The Koran functions as the constitution of Saudi. It should be pointed out that the Wahabism was made more liberalized thanks to Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz. Its doctrines taught that: ①any reform should be allowed unless it is prohibited by the commandments of Koran; ②freedom is granted to administrative decision-making. As long as the Sharia law is observed, the loyal family of Saudi Arabia is entitle to perform the mandate at its discretion. Therefore, political and religious elites in Saudi are trying to find out whether the doctrines of Wahabism are able to stand the test of globalization and how to use the doctrines as an effective tool to handle the effect of globalization and maintain the Islamic nature of Wahabism. But Saudi Arabia is always sensitive about the information inflow from US, banning access to 300,000 websites.

B. Khomeinism

On June 4, 1999, on the gathering to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of Khomeini’s death, the Iranian spiritual leader Khamenei said in his speech that since Islamic Revolution of 1979, the Khomeinism had always been the way to save the country. He also indicated that Iran’s continuous implementation of Khomeini’s policies and lines after his death was a decision based on experience and knowledge. It proved that Khomeinism remained the guiding ideology of today’s Iran. Being said that, Khomeinism was not static. Instead, it evolved with the developments in and out of Iran, particularly with the ongoing of globalization.

Successors to Khomeini developed his theory in the following ways: ①recognizing and giving go-ahead to reform. Mr. Khamenei said on May 18^, 2000 that various branches of government should accept people’ wish for reform as long as the reform does not endanger the doctrine of Islam. [12] The then Iranian president Khatami said that the social and political reform he initiated would not undermine the interests of Islam. Iran would march on the road it selected. ②building a society respecting the rule of law. Khatami advocated governing the country by law and equal justice for all, meanwhile reducing legal barriers for media and reforming the judicial system. ③ expanding the scope of democracy. Khatami attached importance to safeguarding the dignity, rights and freedom of all citizens and achieveing social justice while pressing on the development. He believed that the government should provide the people with an enabling political and social environment, allow the existence of different schools of thoughts and sects, push ahead political agenda by introducing multi-party system and promote sex equality. ④advancing reform and economic development in light of the national circumstances. Government should play a bigger role in managing the economy, particularly in the field of logistics from the macro perspective. The central command economy is believed to be defective, so such steps as expanding privatization, facilitating inward investment, properly reducing control on certain sectors of the economy and developing infrastructure and national industries were adopted. ⑤resolutely defending national independence, dignity, sovereignty and interests, staying on the alert against western hegemony, actively participating in the international affairs and fostering relations with all countries through dialogue instead of exporting revolution. ⑥preserving and promoting Islamic culture. Mr. Khatami indicated that it’s more needed than any other time to consolidate the foundation and value of Islam. But Islam was not capable to take on the challenges of science, economy and politics. Therefore the essence of western culture and philosophy should be absorbed into Islam. It turned out that successors to Khomeini made the Khomeinism more moderate, pragmatic and resilient, but kept its basic principles intact. As a result, Khomeinism took on an apparently two-faced nature, both adaptive and resistant. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, representing the conservative force of Islam, was elected the Iranian president in 2005. In recent years, the conflicts between Iran and the US and the EU have been sharpened, putting the moderated Khomeinism to another test.

(3)   Transnational nationalism

The prevailing transnational nationalism in the Middle East today is typically represented by pan-Arabism and pan-Turkism.

A. Pan-Arabism

Pan-Arabism advocates: ①the Arab solidarity. The secretary-general of the League of Arab States al-Majid stressed that the changes and developments happening around us showed we are at a new stage of international order, i.e., the era of super economic groups. In this new international order, a single country has no role to play. The Arab states must be aware of this and restore the Arab solidarity for their economic integration. [13] It has been a goal pursued by the pan-Arabism to mend relations among Arab states, restore the Arab solidarity and regain the past glory of big Arab family in the world. ②strengthening cooperation in the Arab world. The cooperation of this kind involves politics, economy and culture etc. In terms of politics, the key points include maintaining Arabic national dignity, strongly opposing the Israeli expansion and supporting the struggles of Arabs in Palestine for their national rights. In terms of politics, various meetings and conferences were convened in hopes to find an effective model of economic cooperation. Since 1980s, a trend of grouping and integration emerged in the Arabic cooperation in response to the era of economic grouping around the world. The most active groups today include the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Arab Cooperation Council and the Union of the Arab Maghreb. In the cultural area, Arab states maintain to safeguard their own cultures and strengthen cultural interactions so as to resist western culture’s invasion in the globalized world. ③standing firmly against foreign intervention. The foreign military presence is believed to be a new form of colonialism. The new world should be a multi-polar one. The single polar world is not an eternal international situation. The strategic goal of the US remained unchanged, which is still to pursue the hegemony in the world. ④maintaining the protection and promotion of the Arabic civilization. Arabic nation is not in coma and will not be out of the limelight forever. The Arabs are great people, blessed with a long history and civilization and solidly based culture. The Arabic civilization and spiritual value will bring glory back to Arabs. It is noteworthy here that today’s pan-Arabism is carried by multiple vehicles incluing the Arab League, various Arab countries and other super-national entities. In contrast, the pan-nationalism in 1950s and 1960s was centered on Nasserism, with Mr. Nasser at the core of its leadership.

B. Pan-Turkism

The pan-Turkism, with its base still in Turkey, reared its head over recent years. It engaged in the following activities: ①proposing a “Turkic association” and put forward the slogan of Turkic prevalence. ②advocating pan-Turkism through publishing a large number of books of history and culture, convening seminars on Turkic history and culture and making best use of internet. ③selling pan-Turkism by providing cash, trade, energy and transportation aids when conducting economic cooperation. ④establishing a massive amount of organizations to infiltrate and sabotage in the areas regarded as the eternal land of Turks, and even carrying out terrorist activities in these areas. Both being transnational nationalism, pan-Turkism and pan-Arabism are fundamentally different. The former distinguishes the ethnic qualities of the Turkic group as a whole, but overlooks and denies the specific characteristics and interests of individual branches. Therefore, the pan-Turkism is both absurd theoretically and destructive practically.

Section 3 Destiny of contemporary nationalism in the Middle East

As a historical category, nationalism, in the long run, will whither and eventually extinct. But this process is very very long. At least in the foreseeable future, nationalism will still be the building block of today’s international system, since most of the people worldwide remain loyal to and accept the concept of nation states. Of course, nationalism is also constantly evolving, a rule also true to the Middle East nationalism throughout its existence.

1. The contemporary nationalism in Middle East will be a long-time phenomenon

It is true that globalization poses real and profound challenges to contemporary nationalism in the Middle East, but it has not endangered the latter’s survival yet. First, enormous pressures coming from globalization. Except for Israel, all countries in the Middle East are developing ones with underdeveloped economy, industry, science and management. Their oil economies are susceptible to fluctuations of the world economy. Their non-oil products are insufficient and uncompetitive. The knowledge economy just came to people’s attention. But there is only one viable path of development for the nation states in the Middle East, that is, engaging globalization. This path is riddled with thorns, but it’s not an impasse. Since globalization is not equally favorable to all the countries, there will be winners and losers anyway. In response to the impact of globalization, the contemporary nationalism in the Middle East will naturally reassert itself and become more active. Second, growing imbalance. The history told us that the existence of nationalism is largely resulted from the imbalanced development. In the era of globalization, the imbalance of development and wealth gap will be enlarged due to factors such as economic levels, geographic conditions, cultural characteristics and political institutions. The growing imbalance will trigger more tense competition, where all countries strive for maximal interests while avoiding loses. This is an important factor for the long-time existence of nationalism. Third, globalization needs the support of nation states. It’s not true that nations states can do nothing to globalization, but the concept of “hard sovereignty” is no longer working anyway. Instead, adapting to the trend, adding new contents to national sovereignty and safeguarding the sovereignty in its more profound form are effective means nowadays to strengthen the sovereignty of nation states. Globalization and nationalism are both mutually reinforcing and conflicting to each other. In times of globalization, the role of state should be expanded to better deliver its mandate of safeguarding national sovereignty and interest and maintaining the national characteristics, so as to facilitate nation states in the Middle East to achieve modernization and engage globalization. It is the reason that nationalism and globalization will develop in parallel in the foreseeable future.

2. Diversity of contemporary nationalism in the Middle East

There are three major forms of contemporary nationalism in the Middle East today, namely, secular nationalism, religious nationalism and transnational nationalism (mainly pan-Arabism).

These three forms can be further divided into sub-types. This indicates that contemporary nationalism in the Middle East is and will remain a diversified phenomenon for a long time to come, despite some changes that may occur to it. It should be pointed out that secular nationalism is in the mainstream, the dominance of which will be strengthened in the era of globalization. Meanwhile, religious nationalism and pan-Arabism will keep their vibrancy. The vibrancy of religious nationalism comes from the following factors: ①the Islam maintains it vitality and momentum of development; ②the influence of Islam is wide, profound and persistent. Most nation states in the Middle East are submerged in the heavy Islamic atmosphere; ③the Khoran has its lasting charm. It holiness has never been weaken to date; ④the integration of religion and politics has been the characteristic of Islam; ⑤Islam was once the spearhead against colonialism; ⑥Islam has its profound cultural foundation and capable of confronting the influence of western culture; and ⑦Islam directly influenced the creation of many nations in the Middle East. Take Saudi Arabia and Iran for example, the former is the birthplace of Islam while the latter is the base of Shia Muslims. Therefore, the long existence of religious nationalism is a logical and reasonable result. As for the pan-Arabism, its prosperity comes from its role as an important bond linking Arabs economically and culturally and its traditional influence in opposing colonialism, hegemony and struggling for national independence. In the age of globalization, it will still be a sharp weapon to confront the control of developed countries and safeguard the national interests of Arabs.

3. National culture will be better preserved and developed with the help of contemporary nationalism in the Middle East.

In a globalized world, nations are not in a level playing field. Globalization will continue to be dominated by and bring more favors to Western countries. Backed by its strong economic, technological and military strength, the Western culture is attempting to absorb local national cultures in the region. The Western culture, in the foreseeable future, will maintain its upper hand position. It is a major issue for Islamic culture to keep at bay invasions of the bad stuffs from the Western culture while drawing upon and absorbing the fine elements from it. Therefore, to better preserve and develop its national culture for the maintenance of national characteristics and cultural diversity became the national interest and the core of nationalism. The effort covers three dimensions: first, strengthening the national identity through the revitalization of national culture; second, improve the national cultural traditions by introducing fine elements from the Western culture; and third, rediscovering and promoting the components in the national culture that fit in the trend of globalization.

4. Contemporary nationalism in the Middle East will be more adaptive to the trend of times.

Contents and forms of nationalism vary with the times. The current nationalism in the Middle East will carry more marks of globalization and features unseen in its previous versions. These new features include: ①being reformative. Reform-focus is a highlight for the contemporary nationalism in the Middle East. The nationalism in the region in all its forms advocates reform at home and opening-up to the outside world;②open-mindedness for communicating and integrating with the rest of the world;③economy-oriented. It advocates market-based and competition-driven economy in times of globalization; ④moderateness. It calls for moderate orientation, tolerance, dialogue, compromise and cooperation; ⑤flexibility. It takes a flexible position on issues of sovereignty, human rights, freedom and ethnicity to reconcile with the global trend; ⑥dualism. It both adapts to and resists globalization. ⑦spontaneity. It has a spontaneous response to the impact of globalization, instead of a passive sentimental reaction. The intensity of nationalism depends on how big the impact of globalization is and how deep it is felt by nation states. ⑧the fading identity of nation states. With the advancement of economic, information and technological globalization, borders of nation states will be no longer in their traditional sense. Part of the functions of nation states will also be taken over by some super national institutions. Such a change must be reflected in the national ideology. The above eight aspects show the way ahead for contemporary nationalism in the Middle East. The centerpiece of its development is modernization and information technology, which give ideological guidance and theoretical support to Middle East countries. In the irreversible trend of globalization, the contemporary nationalism in the Middle East has to properly handle the relationship between integration with the international community and ridding of the control by developed countries, the unfinished modernization drive and challenges of fast approaching information era, meanwhile making difficult choice between global ideology and national ideology, the culture of human race and the culture of its own nation, universality and specialty etc.