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This conference aims at exploring the perception of European totalitarianism, both in its Fascist and Stalinist varieties, by contemporary Arab thinkers and movements from the 1920s to the 1950s. The program can be downloaded here. 

The conference takes place in Monroe Hotel, Ain Mreisseh, Beirut.

This academic event is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

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Radio Rome and Radio Berlin playing to impress the Arab peoples: cover of the Egyptian journal Ruz al-Yusuf in 1940.

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The Historical Background
The rapid rise of communist and fascist movements in Europe after World War I constituted a main watershed in European history. The intellectual and political impact of these "antagonistic twins" and their fundamental challenge to liberal thought, however, was not restricted to Europe alone. It radiated also to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In North Africa and the Middle East, intellectuals and policy-makers were partly fascinated and partly alarmed by what they saw emerge in Europe.  Their assessment of the new phenomena and of what they might mean for the Arab world led some of them to reshape their own political agendas, alliances, and visions of society at home.

The Methodological Concept
Using the controversial concept of "totalitarianism" in the conference title is not meant to blur the differences between fascist and communist movements, but addresses a common aspect that is still relevant in the Middle East until today: the fascination for a strong state that abolishes the boundaries between governmental powers, society and the individual and suspends societal and individual autonomy in the name of a superior idea. The concept’s focus on the elimination of institutional boundaries between State, Society, and the Individual has often been accused to overstress the similarities between fascism and communism and to obliterate the manifest differences between them. Yet, we consider it a fruitful heuristic tool to discuss the ideological frames of state-society relations in the age of globalization.

The Research Questions
Although there is a lot of scattered evidence about the impact of European totalitarianism on contemporary Arab intellectuals, politicians, and movements, little effort has been spent to study the empirical material with the help of reception theory and the concept of totaliarianism in a comprehensive, systematic, and comparative perspective.

Western historical research about the impact of European totalitarianism(s) on Arab intellectuals and movements has mainly focused on Palestine and Iraq during World War II, especially on the links between the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amīn al-Ḥusaynī, and the short-lived Rashīd ‘Alī al-Ghaylānī government with Nazi Germany. Much less is known, e.g., about the intellectual and political impact of Italian and Spanish fascism in North Africa; about the decisive ‘seduction period’ of the 1920s and 1930s, the perception of the Stalinist show trials of the late 1930s, the end and aftermath of World War II (breakdown of Fascism, expansion of Soviet communism, foundation of Israel), and the impact of the de-Stalinization period of the mid-1950s; about critical approaches towards fascism and Stalinism in the Arab world; about intellectual and political links between the perception of Communism and Fascism; and, above all, on the patterns, motives, and regional varieties of perceiving, "translating", evaluating, endorsing, imitating, rejecting, or simply ignoring the perceived phenomena of European totalitarianism in different segments of the Arab public from the 1920s to the 1950s.

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From Ruz al-Yusuf after the so-called Hitler-Stalin pact was signed: "The Animals' State" with the Russian bear, the German eagle, and the Italian wolf.

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The Conference Design
The conference will bring together historians from various Arab and European countries to discuss these hitherto rather ‘under-researched’ issues in a comparative perspective. Particular importance will be attached to the processes of ‘translation’ and diffusion of European totalitarian thought and practice into local Arab contexts; to the impact of these reception processes on the history of the Arab world; and to the applicability of totalitarianism theory to Middle Eastern societies.   

The papers of the conference focus on the processes and regional variations of perception, diffusion, and usage of European totalitarian thought in the Arab world of the 1920s-1950s.

The conference will be structured along four main thematic axes:

• regional varieties in the (selective) perception, diffusion and political use of Fascist and Soviet totalitarian thought and politics in the Arab world between the 1920s and 1950s;
• regional varieties in the development of anti-fascist and anti-communist thought in the Arab world between the 1920s-1950s;
• the processes of translation of totalitarian thought into local political and social practice;
• the applicability of Western theories on Totalitarianism to the study of Arab movements and parties considered to have been inspired by European fascisms and/or Soviet communism.

The questions addressed are:

• Who were the main agents of the perception process? What were their main sources, contact persons, contact situations, and communication media?

• Which social and religious milieus were particularly receptive to (or critical of) the lure of fascism or communism?

• What causes drove the attraction and perception processes?

• Which features of European totalitarian thought and practice attracted most sympathy (or aversion) in the Arab world?

• Which ideological frames channelled the ‘translation’ of European totalitarian thought into local discourses?

• How did the (selective) appropriation of totalitarian thought relate to already existing religious, secularist, and liberal discourses? How was it absorbed into the various contexts of pragmatic local policies?

• How were fascist and communist ideas and symbols integrated into popular culture? To what degree did the personality cult in its fascist and communist variants correspond to local traditions and needs?

• Were there intellectual and political links between the reception of fascism and communism? Was the rejection of one form of totalitarian thought connected to the acceptance of another form?

• What causes drove the rejection of (or alienation from) fascism and communism? Who were the main agents of anti-totalitarian thought and politics?

• How did the concept of “totalitarianism” spread in Arab political discourse? To what degree did specific local varieties of totalitarianism theory develop? Is totalitarianism theory an appropriate tool to explain the reception of fascism and communism in the Arab world?

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From the Lebanese Communist journal al-Tariq (1950). Stalin adressing the peoples of the world: "Peace can only be preserved  and strenghtened if the peoples take the cause of its preservation in their own hands and defend it until the end."

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Preliminary List of Participants and Topics