'Aflaq, Michel (1910-1989)

Syrian political philosopher, founder of the Ba'ath (Arab Resistance) Party in the early 1940s. During 1949 'Aflaq was briefly education minister, under President Hashem al-Atassi. He failed twice in bids to be elected to the Syrian parliament, in 1947 and 1949, but remained influential as secretary general of the Ba'ath Party. After Ba'ath came to power, in a March 1963 coup, he became marginalized as the party's military wing gained the ascendancy. After the military wing's coup in 1966, 'Aflaq left Syria and became based mainly in Baghdad, Iraq, where the Iraqi Ba'ath Party seized power in 1968.

'Aflaq formed the Ba'ath Party along with Salah al-Din al-Bitar and other intellectuals. Its basic tenet was ‘One Arab Nation with an Eternal Mission’, as expressed in the slogan ‘Unity, Freedom, and Socialism’. 'Aflaq believed that there existed a single Arab nation, which had been divided artificially by the Ottomans, European and US imperialism, and Zionism.

Born in Damascus, into a Greek-Orthodox Christian family, during studies in Paris he became influenced by communist thinking. From this base, he developed, during the late 1930s, a unique brand of revolutionary-socialist Arab nationalism. It linked together religion and nationalist politics since, as 'Aflaq wrote, both ‘spring from the heart and are issued by the will of God’.