Genealogies of Baʿthism: Michel ʿaflaq Between Personalism and Arabic Nationalism

This paper reframes the intellectual genealogy of Baʿthism in modern Syria through a close reading of the writings of one of its founding figures, Michel ʿAflaq. Rereading ʿAflaq's most important texts is part of a broader reconsideration of the intellectual history of modern Syria between nationalism and liberalism, revolution and reaction. While recognizing the traces of nineteenth-century German idealist philosophy and Romantic nationalism in ʿAflaq's thought, this piece complicates the conventional understanding of his work by showing a striking resemblance with the left-personalism of Emmanuel Mounier and the Esprit group. This unexplored connection constitutes a “missing link” in the intellectual genealogy of Baʿthism. As such, this article contributes to a more expansive and complicated global history of personalism. At the same time, this reconsideration of Michel ʿAflaq suggests a more compelling account of the making of modern Syria, a history with roots more tangled than historians have hitherto imagined.