Sport, Arab Nationalism and the Pan-Arab Games

The aim of this article is to outline the manner in which the Pan-Arab Games reflect the tensions within the pan-Arab project of political and cultural unity. Within the movement there has been a traditional cleavage between those advocating the political unification between Arab states and those promoting inter-Arab-nation-state cooperation. The Pan-Arab Games were established by the League of Arab Nations in 1953 as means of expressing cultural unity between Arab peoples across nation-state boundaries. As an institution it is founded therefore on a philosophy of ethno-cultural group identity (based on race and language), rather than on territorial divisions (such as continental games) or philosophies of multi-culturalism and universalism (as is the case for the Olympic Games). The history of the Pan-Arab games has been fraught with difficulties, largely (though not exclusively) founded in the conflict between Israel and the Arab states, as well as the more recent wars in the Gulf and in Afghanistan. The article provides an historical analysis, identifying the implications of these conflicts and the associated divisions in the pan-Arab movement reflected in the recent history of the Games, in particular those held in the Lebanon in 1997 and in Jordan in 1999. It argues that the Games provide a useful lens through which to identify the contradictions of Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism.