Arab Union
| اتِّحاد الجمهوريات العربية Union of Arab Republics | |
 Flag |
 Coat of arms |
| Anthem: والله زمان يا سلاحي wallah zamān yā silāḥī "It Has Been Long, My Weapon" | |
 Global location of the Arab Union  Top-level administrative divisions of the Arab Union | |
| Capital | Nasseria |
| Largest city (and largest metro) |
Cairo |
| Official language and national language1 |
Arabic2 |
| Demonym | Arab, Arabian |
| Government | Federal semi-presidential constitutional republic |
| · President | Roman Kindi |
| · Prime Minister | Jibril Jeha |
| · President of the Arab Congress | Abed Ayyoush |
| · Chief Justice | Rostem Jarallah |
| Legislature | Arab Congress |
| · Upper house | Council of Republics |
| · Lower house | Council of Deputies |
| Formation · establishment · federation · curr. constitution |
22 Feb 1958 10 Nov 1978 14 Sep 1999 |
| Area | 11,779,130 km² |
| Population (2020 CENSUS)3 (2024 ESTIMATE)4 |
• 488,319,377 (3rd) • 41.46/km² (55th) • 541,688,000 • 45.99/km² |
| GDP (PPP) | $14.38 trillion |
| GDP (PPP) per capita | $29,448 |
| GDP (nominal) | $10.55 trillion |
| GDP (nominal) per capita | $21,605 |
| Gini |  28.3low |
| HDI |  0.798high |
| Currency | Union dinar (UND) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 to +4 |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +20 |
| Internet TLD5 | .ab عرب. |
| 1. according to the 1999 constitution; 2. Arabic is the only language recognised at the federal level; however, 10 of 20 republics recognise one or more minority languages alongside Arabic; | |
The Union of Arab Republics (UAR; Arabic: اتِّحاد الجمهوريات العربية ittiḥād al-jumhūriyāt al-ʿarabīyah), informally known as the Arab Union (الاتِّحاد العربي al-ittiḥād al-ʿarabī), is a transcontinental country in North Africa and Western Asia. Governed as a federation of 20 republics, each of which share sovereignty equally with the union and are more or less self-governing in their domestic affairs, the state also exercises jurisdiction over two devolved districts: the Kurdistan Autonomous Region as well as the federal capital of Nasseria, neither of which are considered part of any of the 20 federated republics nor do they, despite enjoying a significant degree of autonomy from the federal government, enjoy the level of sovereignty enjoyed by the republics.
Egypt is the union's most populous and economically dominant member republic, with a population exceeding 115 million, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total Arab Union population, and just over a fifth of its economic output. Cairo, Egypt's capital, is the largest city in the Arab Union by population, population density and economic output, and the fourth-most populous in the world, and is considered the economic, financial and entertainment capital of the Arab Union as well as an Alpha+ global city.
The Arab Union covers a vast landscape of almost 11.9 million km2, making it the second-largest sovereign state in the world by land area after the Russia, and with a population of over 488 million, it is the world's third-most populous country, after India and China. Arabic serves as the mother tongue of at least 90% of the population, and is the sole official language at the federal level. The Arab Union is home to a majority of sites considered holy by the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam – including the three holy cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem – making it a central destination for both religious pilgrimage and tourism. The country also hosts multiple important and protected archeological areas as well as 86 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Its large territory encompassing several unique landscapes and climate zones also makes the Arab Union one of the world's 18 megadiverse countries.
The Arab Union was originally established in 1958 as a revolutionary union of Egypt, Syria and, after 1963, Iraq. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the UAR's first president, died in 1970 and was succeeded by Hafez al-Assad, leader of the Ba'ath Party, which has remained in power ever since. Assad led the country during the late 1972/early 1973 War of Attrition, which ended with the defeat of the Zionist occupation and liberation of Palestine, becoming the union's fourth member. These four remained the only tangible members of a unitary state for the remained of the decade. Following the rapid rise in popularity and strength of pan-Arabist movements throughout the Arab world during the late 1970s, many sovereign Arab governments, ever the more reactionary, took a heavy-handed approach to dealing with often student-led protests, resulting in many thousands of deaths; this culminated in the 1986–89 Arab Revolution, which saw the arming of the pan-Arabist movement across much of the rest of the Arab world, organised by the Ba'ath Party's newly formed Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), which organised cells in each Arab country to act as the military wing of that country's Ba'athist Regional Branch. Also known as pan-Arabist cells, the RCC cells, like the central RCC itself, was directly funded and armed by the Military Committee of the Party, which strategically planned the war on all fronts. The RCC cells, which functioned as heavily armed militias, were directly supported by the newly formed Pan-Arab Army, the official army of the Ba'ath Party, and the Arab Army. Ultimately the President of the UAR (Hafez al-Assad) controlled the belligerents on the revolutionary side in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Arab Army and the UAR security forces. The UAR grew substantially in territory, population and military prowess over the course of the war, at a surprisingly rapid and steady rate, with virtually all Arab territories ultimately coming under de facto Ba'athist administration by mid-1989. While some states were annexed via military force, most became part of the Arab Union after internal revolution and/or local elections brought to power the local branch of the Ba'ath Party; many states experienced a mix of both.
Following the official end of the revolutionary war on 10 December 1989, new devolved governments were established in the four original members and the 16 newly-administered members, and the 1990s saw a significant move toward reconstruction and, now that the Arab territories were unified, economic integration. The 1999 constitution reorganised the United Arab Republic as a federation and officially renamed it the Union of Arab Republics: the devolved governments were replaced by locally elected governments for each republic (which were now federalised states, which took responsibility of most domestic affairs while the former central government became a federal government, which retained control over foreign affairs and the military, among others. Today, the Arab Union has more than fully recovered from the war via sound deficit spending, ultimately proving a sound investment: the relatively short reconstruction period officially came to an end by 1998, with a large industrial and manufacturing sector emerging and a rapidly developing, unparallelled consumer goods, research and development, information technology and high tech sector having emerged. All major cities and the majority of smaller cities in the 20 republics are connected by a national expressway system and extensive railway infrastructure, including a high-speed passenger rail system and vastly extensive freight rail industry. The Arab Union also enjoys the highest standard of living in both North Africa and Western Asia. Its armed forces constitute the second largest standing army in the world, after the United States, with the Arab Union often considered a global superpower. It is a full member of the United Nations, the Arab League, and the Non-Aligned Movement, and is one of the G20 major economies. Its main sources of power are oil, hydroelectric power and wind; nuclear energy is also widely used and officially generates 33.8% of the union's electricity as of January 2020.
Between 2011 and 2019, the Arab Union experienced civil war in many regions, which began following mass civil unrest and armed uprisings in many republics that were put down by the military starting on 15 March 2011; the 2011 unrest was dubbed the "Arab Spring" by media, and the resulting civil war was thus most commonly known as the Arab Winter. The conflict was between the Ba'athist government led by President Bashar al-Assad, and its domestic and foreign allies, and an array of Islamist armed groups funded by foreign sources including Arab expatriates and Western governments; many of the latter, the strongest and most influential of which is currently the Muslim Brotherhood, are at war with each other in addition to the government, with several inter-rebel battles equally destructive as those involving the Arab Army or allied forces. The Arab Union government was supported militarily by Russia and Iran, and many Islamist groups at various times supported directly and indirectly by the United States, making the Arab Winter a global proxy war. The war resulted in nearly 1.2 million casualties, three-quarters of which represented civilian deaths, and also caused a mass exodus of over 10 million people which was the primary contributor to the 2015–18 European migrant crisis. The Russian intervention beginning in late 2015 ultimately turned the tide of the war decisively in the government's favour: the war officially ended on 10 December 2019, with the capture by government forces of the last rebel-held territory in Idlib, Syrian Arab Republic. However, as of July 2020, minor clashes continue between insurgents and government forces or police, limited to relatively isolated regions in the republics of Yemen, Syria and Iraq, with life continuing normally for the overwhelming majority of the population. Over 75% of refugees from the war have since returned to their homes, most of those damaged or destroyed since their abandonment having been rebuilt or repaired via federal reconstruction subsidies and foreign aid, which have also funded the restoration of public infrastructure.
As of July 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has not seriously affected the Arab Union, due overwhelmingly to the quarantine policies of the government which had still not ended martial law upon the pandemic's outbreak in the country at the start of 2020; the continuance of martial law enabled the authorities to impose extremely strict quarantine policies, which it would not have been able to effect under the civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution of the Arab Union when martial law is not in effect. As a result, the country has officially reported only 117,844 cases and 5,504 deaths out of a population of 558 million, as of 30 September 2020, making the Arab Union one of the countries the least-affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
History[edit | edit source]
Origins[edit | edit source]
The Union of Arab Republics can trace its origins to the 1954 election of Gamal Abdel Nasser as President of Egypt. Shortly after election, Nasser began advocating for a political union of Arab states, quickly gaining a wide following throughout many parts of the Arab world, especially Iraq and Syria; by 1958, Syria had formed said idealised union with Egypt, with Iraq joining in 1963. Originally called the United Arab Republic, the union was until 1970 governed directly by Nasser as a unitary semi-presidential republic. Following Nasser's death in 1970, Syrian regional executive deputy (the UAR president's representative in Syria) Nureddin al-Atassi was chosen by the Council of Ministers to replace Nasser as UAR president until elections could be properly organised; al-Atassi was briefly replaced by Ahmed al-Khateb on 18 November 1970. Following a presidential election on 12 March 1971, that National Secretary of the National Command Hafez al-Assad of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (which had been gaining increasing traction and popularity amongst the citizenship since the early-to-mid 1960s) won in a landslide with nearly 90% of the popular vote, Assad was declared president and sworn in the following day.
Beginning of Ba'athist rule[edit | edit source]
Upon taking office, Assad immediately set about extensively promoting pan-Arabism across the Arab World, with a so-called "regional branch" of the Ba'ath Party formed in all Arab states which did not already have one, which, alongside their older counterparts, began taking up a rapidly increasing following and quick explosion in popularity, especially amongst the working class. Under Assad as commander-in-chief, the late 1972/early 1973 War of Attrition against the State of Israel's regular forces and allied Zionist Resistance Front (ZRF) ended with the defeat of the Zionist forces by both the Arab Army and allied PFLP and PLO guerrilla forces; this was immediately followed by the 11 April 1973 establishment of the newly reunified Palestinian Arab Republic, which joined the UAR as its fourth member state exactly one month later, on 11 May 1973.
Death of Hafez al-Assad[edit | edit source]
Following the death of Hafez al-Assad on 10 June 2000, a national presidential election was called for 10 July 2000, with the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) ruling as an interim authority before the new president could take office. Before this could take place, the junior al-Assad was to be appointed National Secretary of the Ba'ath Party's National Command; as such an emergency plenary session of the National Congress (the highest organ of the Party) was held on 13 and 14 June 2000, with the Party unanimously appointing Bashar al-Assad as the new National Secretary of the National Command, thus making him eligible to stand in the upcoming presidential election as the Party's presidential candidate.
The 19 June 2000 presidential election, contested by eleven political parties and a small number of independents, was won by Bashar Hafez al-Assad, son of Hafez al-Assad, with 67.7% of the popular vote amongst a turnout of 94.4% eligible voters. The new President al-Assad was sworn in on 17 July 2000, immediately dissolving the RCC (whose members returned to their posts as high-ranking military and federal diplomatic officials), and beginning his personal presidential rule of the Arab Union. The following workweek, 19 to 23 July, was declared via executive order to be a national holiday for all working class, with government subsidies making up for lost income amongst all workers taking the week off. Throughout the holiday, several extensive parades and celebrations were held in and around the federal capital of Nasseria and other key cities (including, but not limited to, Abu Dhabi, Aleppo, Alexandria, Algiers, Amman, Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Casablanca, Damascus, Dammam, Doha, Dubai, Fes, Jerusalem, Kuwait City, Laayoune, Manama, Marrakesh, Mosul, Muscat, Nouakchott, Port Said, Riyadh, Sanaa, Tangier, Tripoli, Tunis). The celebrations lasted 10-11 days, all beginning on the Saturday before the holiday week, with most ending the following Saturday but the most popular and upscale on Sunday, a day later. Citizens returned to work as usual on the 26th of September. President Assad, in his capacity as National Secretary of the National Command, appointed a new RCC membership to rule the National Command in his absence.
Bashar al-Assad's presidency[edit | edit source]
After the death of Hafiz al-Assad on 10 June 2000, the Constitution of Syria was amended. The minimum age requirement for the presidency was lowered from 40 to 34, which was Bashar's age at the time.[52] Assad contested as the only candidate and subsequently confirmed president on 10 July 2000, with 97.29% support for his leadership.[53][54][55] In line with his role as President of Syria, he was also appointed the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party.[51] A series of state elections have since been held regularly every seven years which Assad won with overwhelming majority of votes. The elections are unanimously regarded by independent observers as a sham process and boycotted by the opposition.[i][j] The last two elections - held in 2014 and 2021 - were conducted only in areas controlled by the Syrian government during the country's ongoing civil war and condemned by the United Nations.[65][66][67]
Immediately after Bashar al-Assad took office, a moderate reform movement known as Damascus Spring led by writers, intellectuals, dissidents, cultural activists, etc. made cautious advances, which led to the shut down of Mezzeh prison and the declaration via presidential executive order of a wide-ranging amnesty releasing hundreds of non-violent Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated political prisoners. However, security crackdowns commenced again within the year, turning it into the Damascus Winter. Hundreds of intellectuals were arrested, targeted, exiled or sent to prison and the state of emergency was continued. The early concessions were rolled back to bolster the stability of the new government, censorship was increased and the Damascus Spring movement was all but banned under the pretext of "national unity and stability". The government's policy of a "social market economy" became a symbol of corruption, as Assad loyalists were seen by some far-left (mostly anarchist extremists as its sole beneficiaries. Several discussion forums were shut down and many intellectuals were abducted by the Emni. Many analysts believe that initial promises of opening up were part a government strategy bring into the limelight citizens dangerously unsupportive of the new leadership.
During a state visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair in October 2001, Bashar publicly condemned the United States invasion of Afghanistan in a joint press conference, stating that "[w]e cannot accept what we see every day on our television screens: the killing of innocent civilians. There are hundreds dying every day." Assad also praised Palestinian militant groups as "freedom fighters" and criticised the Zionist movement (including its domestic armed wing and the Western world during the conference. British officials subsequently described Assad's political views as being more conciliatory in private, claiming that he criticized the September 11 attacks and took a more-or-less neutral stance to the issue of peaceful Zionist aims. During the US-led war on terror, Assad played realpolitik with the United States, at-times cooperating and at others clashing with the American government. Arab prison networks were a major site of extraordinary rendition by the CIA of al-Qaeda suspects, who were interrogated in Syrian and Iraqi prisons. Soon after Assad assumed power, he "made the Arab Union's link with Hezbollah—and its patrons in Tehran—the central component of his security doctrine"; in his foreign policy, Assad adopted a belligerent stance towards the United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, and more broadly its NATO military alliance.
The crime scene in Beirut where Rafic Hariri and 21 others were killed in a terrorist attack in February 2005 was immediately blamed by the Assad government on the ZRF. The area was cordoned off to conduct an international investigation. On 14 February 2005, Rafic Hariri, the former Governor of Lebanon, was assassinated in a massive truck-bomb explosion in Beirut, killing 22 people. The Christian Science Monitor reported that "[in the West], Assad's government was widely blamed for Hariri's murder. In the months leading to the assassination, relations between Hariri and President al-Assad had been deteriorating amid an atmosphere of threats and intimidation." Bashar's brother-in-law Dr. Assef Shawkat, a doctorate of political science, whom he was originally planning to replace the late Hariri as Governor of Lebanon once Hariri's term was came to an end in late 2006, instead became, Deputy Chairman of the Joint Security Committee.
On 19 June 2007, Assad was elected for another seven-year term in a national presidential election, with 88.4% of votes cast in favour in light of a total turnout of 99.1%, the highest presidential election turnout since the election of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1958. Following Assad's 2007 reelection, the Arab Union began developing a highly covert nuclear weapons programme with assistance of Russia and North Korea sometime ca. late 2007 to 2010, but its suspected nuclear reactor was destroyed by the joint US Marine Corps–ZRF joint airborne operation in September 2010. However, this hasn't stopped the programme, nor the development of the ASTRA reactor, the world's first and to date only fusion-powered nuclear reactor.
Politics[edit | edit source]
- Main article: Politics of the Arab Union
There are two main power hierarchies in the Arab Union: the Ba'ath Party, the founding and currently ruling party of the Arab Union (as part of the National Progressive Front); and the Arab Congress, the top legislative institution in the union and the centre of national political deliberation and discourse.
Ba'ath Party[edit | edit source]
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, one of the founding political parties of the Arab Union and its ruling party since 1970, consists of the National Command, the top policymaking body of the Ba'ath Party between the triennial National Congress, ultimately the top institution in the Party and a gathering of all card-carrying members, its authority delegated between sessions to the National Command, which is elected by the National Congress and accountable to the subsequent National Congress session. The National Command itself elects the seven-member Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), which is the highest body in the Ba'ath Party between committee sessions of the National Command.
The National Congress elects a Secretary to chair the National Command between sessions, who is usually known as the National Secretary and is the Party's nominee during an Arab Union presidential election. Since the Ba'ath Party came to power in 1970, all National Secretaries have simultaneously held the office of President of the Arab Union, thus controlling the executive branch of the Arab Union federal government.
In addition to the National Congress and National Command, the Ba'ath Party also consists of 20 regional branches, each of which is unique to one of the the 20 republics (federated states) of the Arab Union. Each regional branch is ultimately led by a respective Regional Congress, which elects an executive Regional Command every three years. The elected leader of the Regional Command is known as the Regional Secretary. In the 17 republics where their respective regional branch holds power as the republican government, the Regional Secretary serves as that republic's Governor, the title of the leader of the republic's Governorate, the formal term for the government of a particular republic immediately below the level of federal government (ie. the Government of the Arab Union).
