Syria: Hot Spots in Global Politics

by Samer N Abboud

With more than 500,000 people killed and at least half the population displaced, Syria's conflict is the most deadly of the twenty-first century. Russia's decision to join the war has broken the long military and political stalemate but it looks unlikely to deliver any of the core demands that spawned the original uprising against the Ba'athist regime. In this fully revised second edition of his acclaimed text, Samer Abboud provides an in-depth analysis of Syria's descent into civil war, the subsequent stalemate, and the consequences of Russian military involvement after 2015. He unravels the complex and multi-layered drivers of the conflict and demonstrates how rebel fragmentation, sustained regime violence, international actors, and the emergence of competing centers of power tore Syria apart in wholly irreversible ways. A resolution to the Syrian catastrophe seems to have emerged in the aftermath of Russia's intervention, but, as Abboud argues, this "authoritarian peace" contains the seeds of continued and future conflict in Syria. While the Assad regime has so far survived, the instability, violence, and insecurity that continue to shape everyday life for the Syrian people portend an uncertain future that will have repercussions on the wider Middle East for years to come.

Genres: Middle East

304 pages, Hardcover

Published July 23, 2018

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

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).

[Hioni · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Oscar J · Rating 5 out of 5]

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).