Arab socialism (Arabic: الإشتِراكيّة العربية, romanized: Al-Ishtirākīya Al-'Arabīya) is a political ideology based on the combination of pan-Arabism or Arab nationalism and socialism. The term Arab socialism was coined by Michel Aflaq, the principal founder of Ba'athism and the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Syria, to distinguish his version of socialist ideology from the international socialist movement. While distinct from the much broader tradition of socialist thought in the Arab world, which predates Arab socialism by as much as fifty years, direct influence and evolutions of his thought, Marxist or otherwise, were realized and expanded upon in countries like Syria, Egypt, Iraq and others. A main innovation of Aflaq's thought was the transformation of Arab unity from an intellectual ideal into a real-world political pursuit of rights alongside a new set of socioeconomic conditions. Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt in particular served as a potent vehicle for Aflaq's thought, and would have to grapple with crises in the intellectual and military spheres.
