Noam Chomsky writes that the greatest threat to American interests are nationalist regimes sensitive to popular pressure for immediate improvement in the low standard of living of the masses and who promote “diversification of the economy for their own domestic needs. Chomsky quotes a study group that stigmatises the communist threat, which consists of reducing the willingness and ability of poor countries to “complement Western economies”, i.e. to remain part of the Third World !

The two Arab republics whose founding principles – Ba’athism – had been national independence were liquidated in two different ways. One, Iraq, was destroyed by the bombing of the Western coalition led by the United States, and seven years later is still suffering a blockade that amounts to genocide ; the other, Syria, has simply been absorbed into the imperialist apparatus by allying itself with the United States and Europe in the war that destroyed Iraq. History will tell which of these two countries has the more enviable fate. This dual destiny may also illustrate the failure of Arab nationalism, in that it shows that the rivalries between these regimes for leadership of the Arab world destroy any capacity for the latter to resist the domination of the great powers.

The blows dealt by Western imperialism are compounded by internal contradictions within the Arab world. Conversely, this failure of Arab nationalism may explain the strength of Islamic fundamentalism, whose discourse is universalist in opposition to nationalism.