Union of Arab States

The Union of Arab States (Arabic: اتحاد الدول العربية الاشتراكية) is political and economic union of Middle Eastern and North African countries.

While de jure it is an intergovernmental association between arab countries. It de facto functions as a tightly joint confederation: sharing a common internal market, currency, foreign relations and freedom of movement.

The official objectives of the UAS are to promote integrity between its member states, assuring collective security between its members by political and military means. This means that the UAS also serves as a military alliance, in which all states are compromised to defend each other in the case of a foreign attack. Moreover, if a member desires to initiate an attack on a third-party state, it is required first to announce it in the "Council of the UAS", in which members will share their posture about the decision. Nevertheless, all members are required to at least militarily aid, regardless of their stance in the conflict. The UAS can also jointly initiate a conflict, provided that all members states consent to it (so were the cases of the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur conflict)

= Origins and Context =

Arab nationalism rose to prominence with the weakening and defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. And the idea of a united Arab world had been widely discussed and even attempted by various Arab leaders.

Following the 1947 Ba'ath revolution, Syria was the only Arab socialist republic in the middle east. This left Syria in the threatful situation of being surrounded by hostile anti-communist countries.

Nevertheless, the Egyptian revolution of 1952 led to the toppling of King Farouk, who was replaced by an Arab Socialist government. This made Syria no longer politically isolated from its neighbours.