Notes on Arab Unity

THE idea of Arab unity, dead for a thousand years, is fashionable once again, at least for purposes of discussion. Arab union of one kind or another has become the focus of political probabilities for the whole of the Near East and even North Africa. Although the Arabs have not been an important people in modern times, the question of their unification gains a certain weight through its connection with matters of world import, notably the maintenance of British imperial communications and now the American entry into Africa and Asia. The Arab rôle, although in a sense a minor