Abstract
The pan-Arab and local nationalist youth movements in Syria and Iraq are linked here through the events surrounding the Rashid ‘Ali al-Kaylani coup in Baghdad on the eve of World War II. The focus is on the larger political atmosphere of popular nationalism that enabled a band of Syrian youth to go on an adventure into Iraq and receive a warm welcome by the population. The political memoirs of Akram al-Hawrani provide the backbone of this narrative and are self-consciously used to explain how this event was a formative political moment for him and his later involvement in the Arab Socialist Baa’th Party. Syrian political activists were able to envision for the first time the possibility of a long-term partnership between the army and the common people, despite the disillusionment felt by the participating youth who came to Iraq and met leaders such as Hajj Amin al-Husseini and Fawzi Quwaqji, only to be left leaderless in the wake of the British recapture of Baghdad in the months after the coup.