ABSTRACT
In contemporary political sociology, there is a clear reluctance to distinguish between 'strong' and 'weak' states. People can see how American diplomats rebuild a 'strong state' in Lebanon in 1982-83, a natural alternative to several years of civil war. Generally, Arabic newspapers, Kuwaiti diwaniyyas, and Cairo cafes often performs the eternal comparisons between Syria and Iraq, Algeria and Morocco, North and South Yemen, and continuing arguments on their compared strengths, are feverishly made. Hypothesis runs through this paper: perceptions of the state's strength or weakness are substantially marked, in the Arab world, by a tradition of authoritarian rule, where the military ghalaba precedes and practically made possible a generally unrestrained plunder of the society's available resources. The aim of Arab nationalism is the elimination of all existing states and their integration into one Arab state. From the book of Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah people easily notice his inclination almost an obsession to discuss the strength/weakness dilemma.
