Nationalism in the middle east: the case of Syria in Hafız Esad period

Nationalism as a political movement appeared during French Revolution and by the twentieth century, it had marked the political structure in worldwide scale.Nationalism, with different manifestations in different territories, followed different development style. Although the concepts of nation, nation-state and the steps of nationalism are interwoven, in some certain periods one of them may get priority. And nationalism in the third world countries has some more characteristics since in these countries nationalism is mainly conveyed by the process of colonization and by the Western educated intellectuals.Nationalism in the Middle East became too active after the decline of Ottoman Empire because this trend was too functional in anti-colonial struggle. The Arabic states which are isolated through artificial delimitations by colonialists, have tried to come together and unite all the Arabic tribes and states through nationalist discourses in to one Great Arabic State. And Hafız Esad as one of the Arabic leaders with that ideal took a very long part in Arabic political world but could not reach this Megalo Idea.