Constructing Moroccan Nationalism: 'Alal al-Fasi's Early Ideological Writings Modern Moroccan nationalism's ongoing difficulties in promoting a binding national identity have raised the need to take a closer look at its emergence, review its principals, and become better acquainted with its early leaders. The existing literature on these topics remains rather generalized, leaving room for more detailed study of these questions. This paper's theme probes several of these questions by focusing on one of Moroccan nationalism's leading figures, 'Alal al-Fasi (1910-1974). Al-Fasi, a scion of a distinguished and politically active family from Fez, emerged as a leading political activist as the anti-colonial struggle against the French protectorate gained traction in the 1930s. He later became the leader of the nationalist Istiqlal (Independence) party. Al-Fasi was widely recognized as a pro-monarchy social conservative, who oriented Moroccan nationalism away from the social and political radicalism that often underpinned other Arab and North African nationalist movements. Moroccan nationalism was a more moderate political force, largely disinterested in promoting widespread social change. This paper traces the emergence of al-Fasi's ideological principles in the early years of Moroccan nationalist activity, analyzes his early political, economic, and social ideas, and assesses his contribution to Moroccan nationalist ideas. It argues that al-Fasi's unique position as an educated Moroccan, who interacted with the modern world, provided him with the opportunity to promote a unique combination of anti-colonial rhetoric and a loyalty to Morocco's traditional mores, within the framework of Moroccan nationalism. This paper's focus is on the 1940s, a decade in which Moroccan nationalism emerged as a leading ideological and political force. The sources for this study include al-Fasi's writings and statements, with a particular focus on al-Naqd al- Dh?tt ("Self-Criticism"), a collective volume of al-Fasi's political, social, and economic essays originally published in 1949-50. These essays contain many of the principles that became central pivots of Moroccan nationalist ideology, and affected political developments after Morocco regained its independence in 1956. This paper outlines these themes, situating them in the wider context of Moroccan nationalist politics. As this project shows, understanding al-Fasi's ideas provides a better understanding of Moroccan nationalist ideology's emergence. These ideas raise further questions concerning Moroccan nationalism's political development. On a broader level, this paper highlights unique aspects of Moroccan nationalism, which may enrich the study of other Arab nationalist movements and ideologies.

The modern nation-state needs a usable past that anchors a country into a legitimizing historical framework. The challenge of constructing this kind of framework is formidable in Lebanon, whose present-day geography and demography were marginal to earlier mainstream narratives of Lebanon's Ottoman past. Much Lebanese historiography has focused on the Ma'ani/Shihabi Emirate (17th-19th centuries) whose geographic core was Mount Lebanon, and in this historiography the Emirate with its major populations of Druze and Maronites was presented as the historical precursor of modern Lebanon. But today most Lebanese live in and around the coastal towns of Sidon, Tripoli and especially Beirut. None of these were centers of the Mountain Emirate or of the subsequent Mutasarrifiyya. Moreover, these coastal towns' populations were predominantly (Sunni) Muslim for much or all of the Ottoman period. Therefore the role of these cities and their populations in retrospective Lebanese historiography since the 1970s can offer a window into debates and conflicts regarding constructions and understandings of national identity. The architects of the Ta'if Agreement (1989) that ended the Lebanese civil conflicts of the 1970s and 80s called for the creation of a unified national history. Historiography of Lebanon's Ottoman coast published from the 1970s onward is thus a good test of the challenges and possibilities of creating of a hegemonic national narrative that potentially would be more inclusive, useful, and persuasive than the older models. This paper will look at selected studies from recent decades -- written by Lebanese and published mostly in Arabic for "national" audiences -- that treat the Ottoman-era coastal towns. The paper will ask: 1) who are the highlighted historical actors or protagonists, 2) who and what are identified as the forces of historical change, and 3) how these localities and forces relate to a notional idea of "Lebanon" or (possibly) to other adumbrations of national or proto-national identity The paper's conclusion will relate this specific material to more general propositions regarding the relationships among history, historiography, and modern national and nation-state projects.

Having been the defining feature of intra-regional relations in the Middle East since the Egyptian Revolution, the Arab Cold War progressed to the next stage in the early 1960s. Confronted by a rival variant of radical Arab nationalism in revolutionary Iraq and the secession of Syria from the United Arab Republic, Gamal Abd an-Nasir focused his intention on the situation in South Arabia. The struggle against the British position in Aden and the Protectorates became a new rallying point for pan-Arabism. In the aftermath of the overthrow of the Zaidi Imamate in autumn 1962, Nasir quickly decided to militarily support the new republican regime in Sana'a. The ongoing civil war in North Yemen together with the subsequent insurgency against British rule in the South became focal points in the regional Cold War and effected a revirement des alliances in the region. Saudi Arabia ended its accommodationist policies towards the U.A.R. and started a proxy war against Egypt by supporting Yemenite royalists. The insurgents were also supported by the British, Jordan, Iran and, secretly, Israel. The regional Cold War was intensified by parallel Soviet-American competition in the Middle East with the United States attempting to reconcile a rapprochement with the forces of Arab nationalism led by Nasir while at the same time preserving the conservative and pro-Western regime in Saudi-Arabia. Using recently declassified documents from U.S. Presidential Libraries, the U.S. National Archives, the Public Record Office as well as evidence from the former Soviet Bloc, the paper will trace the origins and development of the Arab Cold War in Southern Arabia as well as the involvement of external powers in the conflict. One main aspect of the paper will be the interplay of external and intra-regional forces with the interests and actions of Yemenite actors. It will show how superpower rivalries as well as Anglo-American discord contributed to the failure of several attempts of conflict solution by regional players. Likewise, it will demonstrate how the U.S. (and Soviet) failed attempts to end the proxy wars in the Yemen(s) challenged the existing balance of power in the region and enabled Israeli military activism. The ongoing regional competition led Nasir to re-ignite the Arab-Israeli conflict in order to use the mechanism of the global Cold War in order to transcend the regional Cold War, resulting in major miscalculation and war.

After the Omani Sultan of Zanzibar was overthrown during the Zanzibar revolution of 1964, many Swahili speaking Arab communities returned to Oman's capitol city of Muscat to start new lives. This paper examines the historical experiences of these communities as they became reintegrated into Omani society. It asks the overarching question: "What is the impact of Oman's imperial history in Zanzibar on Oman's post-colonial national identity?" Many of the families involved in this study lived East Africa for generations, and upon returning to the Muscat had to choose between possible social and economic marginalization or having to rearticulate their cultural, linguistic, and even racial identities. By focusing on expatriated communities, forced to articulate their own beliefs before the wider public, this study offers key insights into the process of post-colonial identity formation in the Arabian Gulf region. While much has been written in recent years about the history of post-revolution Zanzibar, there is a lack of information available about the impact of these events on the expatriated Omani communities of Zanzibar. In addition, there is almost no scholarly attention paid to the influence of East African culture on the Arabian Gulf peoples, despite the important historical relationship between these two import regions of the Indian Ocean economic system. Much of the research for this paper is based on interviews gathered during the author's time in Oman in 2006-7 living among the Swahili speaking families of Muscat. In addition, this paper uses empirical data from Omani and East African government sources. As Oman was both a colonial power and a colonized territory, the legacy of imperialism in this region of the Arabian Peninsula is particularly complex. This study sheds light on the impact of these imperial histories on the people of modern Oman.

This paper encompasses the first chapter of my dissertation, which examines the history of the political activism of Jewish-American immigrants within the Israeli ultra-nationalist movement since 1967. My presentation will focus on the first decade of 1967-1977, when many Jewish-American immigrated to Israel and made their first contacts with the "new frontier" of the newly occupied territories. In addition to discussing the statistical and demographic make-up of these immigrants, this chapter focuses on the untold history of their first exposure and activism within the early years of the Israeli settler movement. The paper highlights the role of immigrant organizations (AACI/AACA), Zionist youth movements in the United States, the Jewish Agency/WZO, and the international outreach arm of Gush Emunim in encouraging Jewish-American immigrants to visit and settle in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Sinai. This chapter also chronicles the early activism of Jewish-American immigrants as founders of garinim (seed colonies) of new settlements, including Yamit, Hebron/Kiryat Arba, and Tekoa between 1967 and 1977. Lastly, I examine the way in which Jewish-American immigrants began to take a more active role in the ultra-nationalist camp as a whole by introducing American-style discourses and tactics into the movement. As a part of my dissertation, I hope it will present an original contribution to our knowledge of the Israeli ultra-nationalist movement and our understanding of U.S-Israel relations from a cultural perspective.