What do you think?
Rate this book
Syria
Syria was once one of the Middle East�s most stable states. Today it is a country on its knees. Almost 200,000 people are estimated to have died in its bloody internal conflict and, as the violence intensifies, Syria�s future looks bleak. In this timely book, Samer Abboud provides an in-depth analysis of Syria�s descent into civil war. He unravels the complex and multi-layered causes of the current political and military stalemate - from rebel fragmentation to the differing roles of international actors, and the rise of competing centers of power throughout the country. Rebel in-fighting and the lack of a centralizing authority, he contends, have exacerbated Syria�s fragmentation and fragility. This, in turn, has aided the survival of the Assad regime, contributed to the upsurge of sectarianism, and led to a major humanitarian crisis as nine million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes. A resolution to the Syrian conflict seems unlikely in the short-term as the major actors remains committed to a military solution. As this situation persists, the continued fighting is reshaping Syria�s borders and will have repercussions on the wider Middle East for decades to come.
266 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 26, 2015
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 29, 2021
This book is extremely impressive in its ability to synthesize so much information about Syria from
the Ottoman period, to the post-Mandate era, and until the 2010s in around 500 pages. The book is structured and written in a way that is easy to follow and accessible. I consider it a valuable crash course resource on Syrian modern history, including the country's political economy, genealogies of dissent, factionalism, the ways in which the leadership and authoritarianism evolved over time, as well as the development of opposition politics. Its strength lies in its ability to provide an adequate overview of all of this, leading up to the uprisings, contextualizing its political dynamics, outlining the various stakeholders, and identifying significant changes to the nature of violence and its implications on health care, education, and on displaced populations. The chapters are divided in a way that makes it easy to revisit to read through select themes or time periods covered.
the Ottoman period, to the post-Mandate era, and until the 2010s in around 500 pages. The book is structured and written in a way that is easy to follow and accessible. I consider it a valuable crash course resource on Syrian modern history, including the country's political economy, genealogies of dissent, factionalism, the ways in which the leadership and authoritarianism evolved over time, as well as the development of opposition politics. Its strength lies in its ability to provide an adequate overview of all of this, leading up to the uprisings, contextualizing its political dynamics, outlining the various stakeholders, and identifying significant changes to the nature of violence and its implications on health care, education, and on displaced populations. The chapters are divided in a way that makes it easy to revisit to read through select themes or time periods covered.
February 24, 2022
Probably would not have read it if it wasn't for the book review, but I learned a lot about socioeconomic discontent, instability, and networks of violence in Syria. Detailed but also quite easy to read!
January 25, 2016
In four years the world has witnessed Syria change from a secretive, authoritarian but apparently stable nation state into a chaotic patchwork of competing armed factions with the consequent human disaster of migrant refugees. Most people find it difficult to understand how this has occurred and to make sense of what is currently happening in Syria. The remarkable achievement of Samer Abboud’s book is that he is able to disentangle the Syrian web so successfully and in so many different aspects.
Abboud’s account is sober and objective, non-partisan and knowledgeable; he guides the reader from Ottoman Syria, through the French Mandate, independence and the Ba’ath Party to the Arab Spring and beyond into the catastrophe of political fragmentation now evident.
There is discussion on who supports the Assad regime and why: how it is seen by many as ‘the lesser evil’; how it survives and has retained its grip on much of Syria.
The opposition to the regime is considered in detail: its divisions; militarisation in parallel rather than consequent on political opposition; the civilianisation of the conflict through the increased importance of armed militias on both sides (‘networks of violence’); the rise of sectarianism as an important factor in the conflict.
The factions are distinguished throughout: the Free Syrian Army – corrupt, ineffective and now virtually moribund; the An-Nusra Brigades – so-called Al-Qaeda in Syria; the Kurds; ISIS – of ‘almost entirely foreign composition’. On ISIS Abboud openly states how little we know about what actually is happening in the areas under their control.
He considers foreign intervention, which has ‘propelled violence, solidified the stalemate and embedded the Syrian conflict’. The conflicting purposes of Saudi, Qatari, Iranian and Hizbollah interventions are seen as ‘a battleground for regional proxy wars’; the motivations of Russia and Turkey in the conflict are considered and discussed. The author highlights the impotence of the UN, the half-heartedness of the western powers which see Islamist groups as ‘more important to security than the conflict itself’.
The effects of murder, maiming, displacement of the populous are all discussed in an excellent, but appalling, chapter on the humanitarian catastrophe presently unfolding. Over half the population has been displaced. The long term consequences of this are beyond imagination.
In his conclusion, Abboud considers possible prospects for the country. He reminds the reader that the conflict has not followed a ‘linear trajectory’ so there can be no logical end game proposed. Abboud proposes an approach which recognises the situation on the ground. Rather than reconstituting a centralised state, the current ‘fragmentation’ could be used for restructuring the state itself, as for example has happened in Uganda and Macedonia. He further asserts that a political solution cannot be found without a concurrent solution to the humanitarian crisis. He also considers how the conflict could be demilitarised and re-politicised, admitting the extreme difficulties in this, as no participant is currently looking beyond a military solution. He considers that the decentralising approach mentioned above may have value in assisting the achievement of this objective. Finally, any solution must have the involvement of the Syrians themselves. For the moment, a continuation of violent stalemate seems likely.
Inasmuch as it is possible to clarify, disentangle and explain the Syrian disaster, Abboud has succeeded. His book is clear, all-encompassing and believable. Of course it is in some respects already out of date on the ground, but as an introduction to the ‘hot-spot’ it is remarkable in every way.
Abboud’s account is sober and objective, non-partisan and knowledgeable; he guides the reader from Ottoman Syria, through the French Mandate, independence and the Ba’ath Party to the Arab Spring and beyond into the catastrophe of political fragmentation now evident.
There is discussion on who supports the Assad regime and why: how it is seen by many as ‘the lesser evil’; how it survives and has retained its grip on much of Syria.
The opposition to the regime is considered in detail: its divisions; militarisation in parallel rather than consequent on political opposition; the civilianisation of the conflict through the increased importance of armed militias on both sides (‘networks of violence’); the rise of sectarianism as an important factor in the conflict.
The factions are distinguished throughout: the Free Syrian Army – corrupt, ineffective and now virtually moribund; the An-Nusra Brigades – so-called Al-Qaeda in Syria; the Kurds; ISIS – of ‘almost entirely foreign composition’. On ISIS Abboud openly states how little we know about what actually is happening in the areas under their control.
He considers foreign intervention, which has ‘propelled violence, solidified the stalemate and embedded the Syrian conflict’. The conflicting purposes of Saudi, Qatari, Iranian and Hizbollah interventions are seen as ‘a battleground for regional proxy wars’; the motivations of Russia and Turkey in the conflict are considered and discussed. The author highlights the impotence of the UN, the half-heartedness of the western powers which see Islamist groups as ‘more important to security than the conflict itself’.
The effects of murder, maiming, displacement of the populous are all discussed in an excellent, but appalling, chapter on the humanitarian catastrophe presently unfolding. Over half the population has been displaced. The long term consequences of this are beyond imagination.
In his conclusion, Abboud considers possible prospects for the country. He reminds the reader that the conflict has not followed a ‘linear trajectory’ so there can be no logical end game proposed. Abboud proposes an approach which recognises the situation on the ground. Rather than reconstituting a centralised state, the current ‘fragmentation’ could be used for restructuring the state itself, as for example has happened in Uganda and Macedonia. He further asserts that a political solution cannot be found without a concurrent solution to the humanitarian crisis. He also considers how the conflict could be demilitarised and re-politicised, admitting the extreme difficulties in this, as no participant is currently looking beyond a military solution. He considers that the decentralising approach mentioned above may have value in assisting the achievement of this objective. Finally, any solution must have the involvement of the Syrians themselves. For the moment, a continuation of violent stalemate seems likely.
Inasmuch as it is possible to clarify, disentangle and explain the Syrian disaster, Abboud has succeeded. His book is clear, all-encompassing and believable. Of course it is in some respects already out of date on the ground, but as an introduction to the ‘hot-spot’ it is remarkable in every way.
September 28, 2018
I picked up this book in passing at my local library, probably initially because of the provocative picture on the cover. But I have always had an interest in middle eastern history (never mastered it tho). It is so very complicated that I think no author can give real justice to the issues that have plagued this area over the centuries.
This author, however, writes very scholarly and with precise language that is clear on points and issues. I like how he frequently provides examples to assist for better understanding. For me this made the reading more manageable and interesting to keep up with the pile after pile of information to do with organisations, the people, the conflicts etc and all the complexities that exist in the nation.
I won't pretend to have understood everything in the book apart from the fact (and the point I think he is really making) that there is a ridiculous amount of interference to the welfare and progress of the country.
To begin with, Abboud gives a relevant history to Assyria as the backdrop to the current crisis fromthe Ottoman period to the French rule and mandate after the Great War to the new regime that refuses to be ousted later on. He looks at the classes and the struggles for equality leading into the long-running regime that started out well (tho like a dictatorship, it gave back to the poor and struggling lower classes) but inevitably led to an uprising with changes over time.
With the uprising begins the crisis of conflicts that has led to more than half of Syrians being displaced. He says, "The United Nations High Commission on Refugees has declared the Syrian refugee crisis the largest operation in it's history and have requested billions of dollars in immediate aid to provide services, aide, and shelter to more than 4 million Syrian refugees"! He says that makes Syria the second largest refugee-population in the world.
The author's main point (I think) is that there is no one explanation to the uprising and political disarray . To better understand Assyria and it's complexities one has to consider many factors. And from this the book describes in great detail the fragmentation, factions, politics, and violence that plagues Assyria.
The effects is long term that will "last for generations" and currently there is no answer. Abboud looks at all the historical attempts for resolution with different parties, national and international, including UN, to reveal that mostly it is for a political gain.
To the world it appears that Assyria is over-looked and not greatly understood. He recognizes it is too complex to find exact answers. However he does conclude with what direction the Assyrians should take to include all (Assyrian) parties with locale autonomy to see the way forward for repair. How that is possible is up to the Assyrians themselves.
This author, however, writes very scholarly and with precise language that is clear on points and issues. I like how he frequently provides examples to assist for better understanding. For me this made the reading more manageable and interesting to keep up with the pile after pile of information to do with organisations, the people, the conflicts etc and all the complexities that exist in the nation.
I won't pretend to have understood everything in the book apart from the fact (and the point I think he is really making) that there is a ridiculous amount of interference to the welfare and progress of the country.
To begin with, Abboud gives a relevant history to Assyria as the backdrop to the current crisis fromthe Ottoman period to the French rule and mandate after the Great War to the new regime that refuses to be ousted later on. He looks at the classes and the struggles for equality leading into the long-running regime that started out well (tho like a dictatorship, it gave back to the poor and struggling lower classes) but inevitably led to an uprising with changes over time.
With the uprising begins the crisis of conflicts that has led to more than half of Syrians being displaced. He says, "The United Nations High Commission on Refugees has declared the Syrian refugee crisis the largest operation in it's history and have requested billions of dollars in immediate aid to provide services, aide, and shelter to more than 4 million Syrian refugees"! He says that makes Syria the second largest refugee-population in the world.
The author's main point (I think) is that there is no one explanation to the uprising and political disarray . To better understand Assyria and it's complexities one has to consider many factors. And from this the book describes in great detail the fragmentation, factions, politics, and violence that plagues Assyria.
The effects is long term that will "last for generations" and currently there is no answer. Abboud looks at all the historical attempts for resolution with different parties, national and international, including UN, to reveal that mostly it is for a political gain.
To the world it appears that Assyria is over-looked and not greatly understood. He recognizes it is too complex to find exact answers. However he does conclude with what direction the Assyrians should take to include all (Assyrian) parties with locale autonomy to see the way forward for repair. How that is possible is up to the Assyrians themselves.
December 13, 2015
This is a deeply depressing and saddening book, but a very useful and informative one. The author has managed to make a very complex situation relatively clear and comprehensible – as much as it is possible to make any sense at all of the disaster that is Syria right now. Essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand both what is happening in the country in the present and the historical background that led up to the crisis.
December 29, 2021
This was an excellent snapshot into Syria's complex history. I liked how Abboud shaped the content and time and again helped us see why he was focusing on certain aspects of the history over others, ultimately underscoring that this is one way of precieving what has come to pass. I appreciated that transparency and the in-depth analysis he did gave on the topics he chose to explore.
November 10, 2016
A compact, far-reaching account of the Syrian conflict on the eve of the Russian intervention. Abboud's research focuses in turn on all the actors and all the issues at stake to paint a global picture of the catastrophe that has now entered a stalemate phase that might linger for many years.
August 25, 2019
Informative
April 15, 2019
A robust history of conflict, particularly valuable for its thorough explication of the fragmentation and shifting alliances on the battlefield. However, Abboud doesn't really touch on two important topics: how the debate around chemical weapons influenced international actors' approach to the conflict; and the ideological underpinnings and relative uniqueness of the Rojava experiment. For the latter, Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation in the Syrian Kurdistan is worth reading.
September 29, 2025
Really good book that explains more on the political and how the Syrian war was started.
some key points;
- Syria and Turkey were about to go in the war in the 90s but did not
- when the US invaded Iraq because of 9/11 Syria was affected a bit because they traded a lot with Iraq
- Syria had a big socialist time and were honestly doing pretty good until the president died and was replaced by his son, Bashar al Saad
- Syria kind of lost lots of money due to not being able to control the oil and relied on agriculture instead
- Syria really had no genuine political party it was a bit jumbled
some key points;
- Syria and Turkey were about to go in the war in the 90s but did not
- when the US invaded Iraq because of 9/11 Syria was affected a bit because they traded a lot with Iraq
- Syria had a big socialist time and were honestly doing pretty good until the president died and was replaced by his son, Bashar al Saad
- Syria kind of lost lots of money due to not being able to control the oil and relied on agriculture instead
- Syria really had no genuine political party it was a bit jumbled
September 3, 2017
great book for someone who only followed the Syrian conflict through the news. this provided context into the start and end of the conflict
December 14, 2023
well thought out descriptions of the many factors to the awful war syria has gone through, may all citizens proper going forward and may all those who lost their lives rest in eternal power
December 22, 2016
Another readable account of the Syrian conflict though it stops short of the Russian intervention i september 2015, and therefore does not cover the dynamics shaping the conflict now. But the book does give a highly readable account of the trajectory of the first four years, the main strength of the book however lies in the first chapter where Abboud gives a detailed analysis of the "Rise and Fall of the Ba'ath Party". He starts out by describing the French Mandate period and under what circumstances Arab nationalism and the Ba'ath party became dominant in Syria. The cross-class revolt against the French basically changed their attitudes to reform the political system and respond to nationalist demands. The revolt of course was heavily repressed and ultimately crushed. The elite from the Ottoman period gravitated towards nationalism and a National Bloc emerged, eventually the French would negotiate with the block after strikes and unrest in 1936. The French occupation ended in 1946 and a period of instability followed. The failed war in Palestine in 1948 radicalized Syrian politics and the National Bloc started to fall apart. The Ba'ath Party became the dominant political force in a coup in 1963, with peasant roots and strong links to the military where Alawites increasingly dominated. Instability continued until Hafiz al-Assad (an alawite air force officer) took power in 1970 in a corrective revolution. he would lead the country until 2000 when he died. Abboud gives a thorough analysis of Assad-Regime and lays out the pillars of power: 1) The Ba'ath Party, 2) Corporatism (the insubordination and cooptation of social forces such as peasants, merchants, students), 3) The expanding state bureaucracy, 4) The army and security institutions. This model helped the regime survive an Islamist insurgency in the late 1970s, and well into the presidency of Bashar al-Assad. In 2011 it collapsed and civil war broke out. The remaining of the book lays of how that evolved (chapter 2) and what characterized the dynamics of the conflict, the emergence of the opposition and its fragmented nature (chapter 3). Chapter 4 describes how foreign interference shaped the conflict through escalating it and giving hope for the opposition that the U.S. would intervene on their behalf just as the West had done in Libya. This major miscalculation (by the opposition and their regional supporters) is well described. Chapter 5 elaborates on the fragmentation of the opposition, primarily between its nationalist and Islamist wings, the increasing influence of the hardliner Islamists and sectarian polarization that emerged. Chapter 6 covers the hard facts of the staggering humanitarian dimension of the conflict, a crisis that has only worsened since the book was published in november 2015. Overall a good read if you know little about Syria and the civil war, although already somewhat outdated on the latest major developments.
March 17, 2019
Its a great book, gets dry in the middle. But it's an excellent book in providing the background and details of what's happened in Syria from the time of the Ottoman rule to the French takeover to the regime power and the opposition that follows. This opposition saw the rise of many armed forces including the ISIS. The book details external supporters of the regime being Iran, Turkey and Russia and opposition supporters being qatar and saudi arabia. The failure of the western intervention caused by disagreements beyween the UNSC countries (China and Russia supporting the regime while France Britain and US not) and geo political reasons for qatar and saudi arabia and iran and Turkey as well as the only pre condition of the opposition of resignation of Assad being declined. Its interesting to supplement this book with the current news on regime in power due to final Russian intervention by way of aerial bombing immediately followed by regime take overs by way of cutting off the highways supplying arms and other supplies from the neighbouring countries. While the two Geneva talks were aiming at political transition and failed, the Astana process included de escalation zones which although has its disadvantages, has been the more successful one. The book also highlighted for me the reason why alleppo was the main target (When the western countries, mainly Europe stopped importing oil from Syria, which was its main export, Syria had to rely on privatisation and meant a lot of rural agricultural population moved to urban Aleppo. Also Aleppo sharing it's borders and being the highway for supplies from neighbouring countries meant it was attractive).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 19, 2016
Aboud provides an amazing history of the Syrian Conflict up to the time of writing, including the rise of armed groups including al-Nusra and ISIS. It provides amazing perspective and detail of the conflict up to 2014 or 2015. It is without a doubt the best book available on the conflict to date. Of course, it is inevitable that this book will become dated rather quickly, since it is about an ongoing war. Hopefully, Aboud will provide an updated version in several years which includes everything in this volume as well as what is to come.
March 2, 2020
If you want to understand what happened in 2011 and beyond in Syria, this is arguably the best general overview available in English. Accessible and it successfully utilizes (and engages) the relevant scholarly material available up to the point of publication (at least in English).
October 10, 2020
Very interesting book that provides many details for Syria’s unfortunate situation. Unfortunately, it is clear that the author’s views undermine democratic solutions beyond their existence as representative governments.
March 28, 2016
This is an essential book for anyone trying to wrap their head around the tragic situation in Syria. Highly recommended.
Read
July 25, 2016956.91042 A1343 2015
October 6, 2016
A lucid summary of the war.
May 21, 2017
A lucid summary of the war.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews