This paper attempts to trace the achievements and failures that have affected the Arab nation (the Ummah ), and the impediments that have been strewn in its path, preventing the realization of the visions it had for its future, since the end of the Second World War. It discusses the reasons behind the subjugation of the Arab nation to the hegemonic interests of external factors, primary actors and stakeholders. It elaborates on how foreign interests and interventions have conspired, along with internal factors and determinants endemic to the various infrastructures of Arab regimes, to fragment the Arab nation and perpetuate the divisions between the Arab countries and their underdevelopment/backwardness. It analyses the current situation, and proposes a set of recommendations that may help to extricate it from the current impasse in which the Arab nation is blocked.

This opening article is an overview of the various issues addressed in a symposium held in early September 2006 in the aftermath of the war that took place between Israel and Lebanon in the summer of that year. It analyses the reasons behind the war and its repercussions for both Hezbollah and Israel, probes the reasons advanced by Israel and the real intentions behind the war, and reviews the prosecution of the war by both parties and the reasons behind the success of Hezbollah's resistance to the Israeli onslaught. The article also addresses the responsibility of Hezbollah for triggering the war and the disproportionality of the Israeli response to Hezbollah's kidnapping of its soldiers. The losses incurred by both parties are analysed, as are the repercussions on Israel, Lebanon, the region, and the international community especially the United States.