Analyse the role of Egypt after the Second World War in bringing about Arab unity.

Answer:

After 1945 Egypt, the most populous and politically weighty Arab state, made itself the champion of Arab unity. Under Gamal Abdel Nasser especially it gave Arab nationalism its leadership, its ideology and its most ambitious institutional experiment.

Early leadership

• Egypt was a founder member of the Arab League in 1945, with its headquarters in Cairo.
• It led Arab opposition to the partition of Palestine and joined the war of 1948.
• Defeat in that war discredited the monarchy and prepared the revolution of 1952.

Nasser and Arab nationalism

• Nasser articulated pan-Arabism, presenting Arabs as one nation divided by imperialism.
• His nationalisation of the Suez Canal in 1956 and survival of the tripartite attack made him a hero.
• Cairo's Voice of the Arabs radio carried his message across the region.
• Non-alignment and opposition to the Baghdad Pact were presented as Arab self-assertion.

The United Arab Republic and after

• Egypt and Syria merged as the United Arab Republic in 1958, the high point of the project.
• Syria seceded in 1961, exposing the difficulties of political union.
• Egyptian intervention in the Yemen civil war strained her resources and Arab relations.
• Defeat in the Six-Day War of 1967 gravely weakened Nasser's leadership and pan-Arabism itself.

Egypt therefore did more than any other state to give Arab unity leadership and voice, above all under Nasser. As historians observe, the achievement proved more emotional and rhetorical than institutional, for the collapse of the United Arab Republic and the defeat of 1967 revealed how far particular state interests outweighed the pan-Arab ideal.