Journal of Political Science
November 1991
Charles G. MacDonald

The Middle East is wrought with the passions of burgeoning nationalisms, religious fervor, ethnic conflict, and external intervention, as well as the more mundane struggle over land and resources. The aspirations of Pan-Arab unity and Pan-Islam face a subjective reality of a Middle Eastern mosaic of peoples artificially divided into a modern state system, with states jealously guarding their vested interests. National boundaries, although tested by expansionist states pressing historical and sometimes, religious claims, are proving to be resilient, but not always immutable. Similarly, the nationalist aspirations of ethnic and religious minorities within the Middle Eastern states face the vested interests of their host states, which have a propensity to preserve the status quo and a reluctance to relinquish sovereignty or share power. The aspiration of national self-determination that emerged as a prominent milieu goal in the post-colonial world is often championed by the United Nations, and is repeatedly voiced in the Middle East. National self-determination sought by religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East, however, is undermined by transnational religious movements; is too often the victim of the national interests of both Middle Eastern states and outside powers; and is repeatedly sacrificed to the exigencies of internal security and regional stability. [1]
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