The paper deals with the contradictory process of state-building in the Middle East. The state is held to be the key variable in order to understand the manifold conflicts in the Middle East, especially in the Arab world. It is argued that the mere concept of state is artificial and illegitimate in Arab political culture, which is mainly characterized by Islam and Arab nationalism. The indigenous concepts defining institutions and the political community are not compatible with the elements characterizing the modern, predominantly Western concept of state, which is actually equivalent with nationstate. The article focuses on the variables ‘nation’ and ‘territoriality’ in order to present the general argument; the case of Syria is chosen as a specific example.
