The Formation of the United Arab Republic

‘By the late summer of 1957 Syria was on the verge of disintegration as an organized political community.’1 Although Nasser’s intervention had served to defuse what might be termed the great-power crisis there, many Syrians had lost confidence in the future of their country as an independent state. The fact that it had required the deployment of Egyptian troops to stabilize the situation in the country had merely served to reinforce this sentiment. Syria had become the object of competition not only between rival Arab states, but also between the superpowers, and the rival poles of attraction seemed to be pulling the country apart.