ABSTRACT
Around the time of the Second World War, official reports on the human resources of the Arab countries were characterized by an air of general pessimism concerning the potential for future economic growth and the expansion of population and settlement. The poor health and nutritional status of the Arab populations was seen as a constraint on their economic growth, and the smallness of the populations of countries like Iraq, Libya and Syria was viewed as a problem of central importance in the introduction of modern agricultural and industrial methods. Both the discovery of oil and the Arab–Israeli conflict changed these views entirely and made the region a focus of Great-Power concern. In addition to the new oil income, especially since 1973, massive amounts of civil and military aid poured into the region from both the west and the communist countries.
