Syria after the Uprisings: The Political Economy of State Resilience

by Joseph Daher

Syria has been at the centre of world news since 2011, following the beginnings of a popular uprising in the country and its subsequent violent repression. Eight years on, Joseph Daher analyses the resilience of the regime and the failings of the uprising, while also taking a closer look at the counter-revolutionary processes that have been undermining the uprising from without and within. Through a sharp reconstruction of the key historical developments, Daher focuses on the reasons behind the transition of a peaceful uprising into a destructive war with multiple regional and international actors. He argues that other approaches have so far neglected a global analysis of the conflict's economic, social and political characteristics. He also shows that it is impossible to understand the Syrian uprising without a historical perspective dating back to the seizure of power by Hafez al-Assad in 1970. A result of years of research and discussions with activists, students, members of political parties and Syrian academics, this book will be the go-to analysis of Syria for years to come.

Genres: Middle East, History, Nonfiction

402 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2019

Reviews

[Steffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent read. ‘Syria after the uprisings. The political economy of state resilience’ (Pluto Press, 2019). This book came out literally a couple of weeks ago and captures the developments in Syria until earlier this year. What’s so remarkable about the book – other than being impeccably researched – is that it is an example of this very, very rare breed of Marxist international relations. I usually don’t read anything international relations as this intellectual-low-light discipline usually tends to treat states like a subject with ‘strategic interests’ without ever interrogating the class and power formation of said states.

This book, on the other hand, provides a historical and materialist perspective on the uprising in Syria in early 2011 (and the underlying class structure in post 2000 Syria) and employs materialist analyses of imperialism to show how the intervention of foreign actors influences the nature of the uprising and dynamics regarding the power base of the Syrian state.

Some interesting take-aways for me were how the significant World Bank and IMF supported neoliberal restructuring of Syria’s state-led economy under Bashar al-Assad in the 2000s (reducing the role of the state, privatizations, including of the financial sector, etc.) massively increased poverty and inequality and a) changed the social base of the regime and b) created the social conditions for the uprising in 2011. For instance, FDI increased from USD 120 million in 2002 to USD 3.5 billion while trade liberalization resulted in the partial destruction of the local manufacturing base with youth unemployment reaching 48 per cent in 2011. The usual costs of neoliberal reforms. Anyway, so this is quite important to understand the social structure of the initial uprising. I also appreciated the chapter on the ongoing expansion of crony capitalism over the past 8 years or so of the ‘war economy’, and the various multi-billion USD loans, trade agreements and takeover of Syrian state industries by Russian and Iranian state and private investors. It reminded me of Naomi Klein’s disaster capitalism (a book I never read but frequently reference lol) especially the ongoing massive privatization of land and real-estate which will also structure the upcoming re-construction, estimated at USD 400 billion over 20 years or so. So this was a great intro into the political economy of Syria (rather that the reductionist tales of class-less sectarianism) and how the conflict continued to alter the state’s social power base (from back-in-the day a rural base of peasants towards an urban upper class and internationalized Syrian capital).

No spoiler to tell you that the book concludes that the ‘resilience’ of the regime, which seems to have ‘won’ this useless war at the price of 2 million of its people dead, injured or maimed and half the population displaced, is primarily the result of the constellation of foreign powers, mainly with Syria being much less of interest to the US military-industrial complex than Iraq or Libya and of course the massive 2003 fuck-up in Iraq which lowered NATO’s appetite to get too involved in regime change; linked to Iraq of course the emergence of the Islamic State (IS) in 2014 which made Assad look like the lesser evil and who of course is also willing to through the Kurds under the bus once their job is done, plus the backing of Iran and Russian with big business interests. Funny enough, Iran doing the Chinese model of giving billion USD state bank loans to Syria which then has to use the loans to important from Iran through Iranian companies (Iran’s exports to Syria are 20 times higher than the other way around); so yeah, just because they’re both sanctioned, doesn’t mean they can’t pursue their own trade regimes with many elites linked to both regimes making a big buck off the war. So, in the end, the multiple counter-revolutions (not to mention the rivalry between the Gulf States each supporting their own group of nut cases), Syria’s backing by the BRIC states and lack of Western appetite for regime change, made this 2011 uprising and ensuing eight-year war one of history’s grand pointless human tragedies. Now, we are all back to square one, with Assad’s cronies making huge profits from the upcoming reconstruction, including urban luxury real-estate development.

The book concludes though that the contradictions of the Assad regime remain, with more than 80 per cent of the population living in poverty. While I guess everyone is exhausted from this beyond pointless war, the Arab spring is a much longer process, with failures (Syria) and set-backs (Egypt) and maybe incremental democratization (Iran? One day, guys?) so this doesn’t mean that Assad has ‘won’ as such. Obviously, unless there is a progressive change in the imperialist centre, the cards will always be stacked against popular uprisings in the middle east by regimes that oppress their people will ‘our’ weapons or money, in one way or another.

[Joma Geneciran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph Daher’s monograph Syria After the Uprisings: The Political Economy of State Resilience employs a historical materialist outlook. The three theoretical arguments he makes in the introduction are:
1. ‘the shifting terrain of class and state formation’. Specifically, neoliberal policies that impoverish areas outside of the ruling-Ba’ath parties’ favor, and an entrenched economic class that it answers to;
2. A materialist analysis of imperialism attentive to the influence of foreign actors;
3. The role of sectarianism and its dynamics.

The emphasis was on the political economy of the Bashar era (2001 to the present).
Chapter one had some of the best stuff on the political economy of the period and the process of economic liberalization led by the IMF and World Bank and austerity measures that benefited a wealthy class and foreign investors in the Gulf monarch states and in Turkey at the cost of vast Syrians. Chapter two looked at the protest movement during the first years of the uprising. Chapter three looked at strategies to mobilize support for Bashar's government. Chapter 5 turned to the Kurdish question and the rise of the PYD. Chapter six, looked at the international lens and the role of international state actors in the conflict (allies such as Russia and Iran) and 'enemies' (such as the Gulf Monarchies, Turkey and the U.S.). Chapter 7 looked at the socioeconomic and human costs of the protracted war.

The section on the rise of neoliberalism in the first chapter is the best I've come across for details on the political economy of Syria and the major transitions that happened from Hafez to Bashar. Very good.

[sube · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very much what it says on the tin: a book on the political economy on Syria, esp. why it has survived, but also for why the protest movement turned from a non-sectarian mvmt into a movement dominated by islamists (e.g. HTS).

I think it gives this quite well -- the first chapter detailing the Syrian economy until the 2011 protest wave is the best, because it grounds it quite well.

I think my main issue with the book is that a. it's really not a chronological account, but it does not really aspire to be this, but be *explanatory for wider trends* and it does this quite well and b. that it often is too uncritical of the Syrian Opposition despite the lots of issues it posits. Islamism & national chauvinism was there from the ground, but why does it not cause a greater place of rethinking? It's argued, but often the change is transferred to wide array of different actors -- Damascus, foreign backers, etc. I think this is *part* of the explanation, but its explanation for inner reasons for why this could be *allowed* (which is central here) I think is lacking. I think this is my main issue.

Nonetheless, this book is an important source and I learned a lot.

[Michael Vela · Rating 5 out of 5]

So few books discuss the Syrian uprising (and Arab spring in general) from a materialist standpoint. Does a great job of chartering the development of Syria under the Assad’s from a state led economy to a neoliberal one and all the social contradictions it brought about, directly into the 2011 protests turned civil war. Detailed dives into the various sides of the civil war and their foreign backers. Really helped make sense of the state Syria was in recent years and the conditions that led to Assad’s recent ouster.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un livre incroyable qui présente une analyse socio-économique compréhensive du processus de la révolution syrienne et qui nous amène étape par étape y compris l’histoire du père Assad. Très important pour comprendre qui a été impliqué dans ce processus d’un point de vu socio-économique et politique

[Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recommend this encyclopedic study of the Syrian Revolution that integrates history, politics, and economics. Daher's critiques of the failures of the opposition are important. My main criticisms have to do with the author's Trotskyism and the volume's somewhat dry style.