| Summary/Abstract |
WITH 61 STATES (representing four-fifths of the planet's total population) involved in WWII, and 110 million people taking part in hostilities,1 the political, economic and military status of the Arab peoples did not allow them to play any prominent role in the victory of the Allies over the Axis Powers. For seven postwar decades, the Middle East and North Africa remained a zone of large-scale armed conflicts and permanent military-political turbulence that, from time to time, pushed the world to the brink of global armed confrontation. This explains the close attention of historians and political scientists to the recent history of the Arab East and, in particular, the role its population played in World War II.
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