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Syria (which in its historical wider sense includes modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine and Jordan) has always been at the centre of events of world importance. It was in this region that pastoral-stock rearing, settled agriculture and alphabetic writing were invented (and the dog domesticated). From Syria, Phoenician explorers set out to explore the whole Mediterranean region and sailed round Africa 2,000 years before Vasco de Gama. These are achievements enough but the succeeding centuries offer a rich tapestry of turbulent change, a cycle of repeated conquest, unification, rebellion and division. John D Grainger gives a sweeping overview (though replete with telling details) of the making of this historical region. From the end of the ice age through the procession of Assyrian, Phoenician, Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Turkish, French and British attempts to dominate this area, the key events and influences are clearly explained and analysed. The events playing out on our TV screens over recent years are put in the context of 12,000 years of history.

“A fluent introduction to Syria's recent past, this book provides the backstory to the country's collapse into brutal civil conflict” (Andrew Arsan, author of Lebanon: A Country in Fragments). The fall of Syria into civil war over the past two years has spawned a regional crisis with reverberations growing louder in each passing month. In this timely account, John McHugo seeks to contextualize the headlines, providing broad historical perspective and a richly layered analysis of a country few in the United States know or understand. McHugo charts the history of Syria from World War I to the tumultuous present, examining the country's thwarted attempts at independence, the French policies that sowed the seeds of internal strife, and the fragility of its foundations as a nation. He then turns to more recent events: religious and sectarian tensions that have divided Syria, the pressures of the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli conflict, and two generations of rule by the Assads. The result is a fresh and rigorous narrative that explains both the creation and unraveling of the current regime and the roots of the broader Middle East conflict. As the Syrian civil war threatens to draw the US military once again into the Middle East, here is a rare and authoritative guide to a complex nation that demands our attention. “Scholarly but accessible and of much interest to those with an eye on geopolitical matters.” —Kirkus Reviews “Useful as a concise overview of independent Syria's most important movements and personalities, McHugo's book gives readers the basic background necessary to understand the country.” —Publishers Weekly

Political violence--Syria--History--21st century, Political leadership--Syria, and Protest movements--Syria--History--21st century

When Syrian President Bashar al-Assad came to power upon his father's death in 2000, many in- and outside Syria held high hopes that the popular young doctor would bring long-awaited reform, that he would be a new kind of Middle East leader capable of guiding his country toward genuine democracy. David Lesch was one of those who saw this promise in Assad. A widely respected Middle East scholar and consultant, Lesch came to know the president better than anyone in the West, in part through a remarkable series of meetings with Assad between 2004 and 2009. Yet for Lesch, like millions of others, Assad was destined to disappoint. In this timely book, the author explores Assad's failed leadership, his transformation from bearer of hope to reactionary tyrant, and his regime's violent response to the uprising of his people in the wake of the Arab Spring.Lesch charts Assad's turn toward repression and the inexorable steps toward the violence of 2011 and 2012. The book recounts the causes of the Syrian uprising, the regime's tactics to remain in power, the responses of other nations to the bloodshed, and the determined efforts of regime opponents. In a thoughtful conclusion, the author suggests scenarios that could unfold in Syria's uncertain future.

This book provides a multi-disciplinary understanding of the processes of change in contemporary Syria as well as its historical, social, and cultural underpinnings. A number of distinguished anthropologists, historians, political scientists, and literateurs examine key issues such as the changing Syrian family, political factionalism, the sedentarization of nomads, bureaucratic corruption, rural-urban migration, the development of the Ba'th Party, Syria's political isolation, religious resurgence, and the continued importance of sects in Syrian life. This book strikes a balance between examining the consequences of Syria's geographical and strategic position in international politics and the implications of its internal and highly complex ethnic and class structure and culture. It argues that the religious culture of Syria is as important as the leadership of Asad and, more generally, that an understanding of Syrian politics must be matched by an understanding of Syrian society and culture.Richard T. Antoun is Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He is the author of Arab Village; Low-Key Politics, also published by SUNY Press; and Muslim Preacher in the Modern World. Donald Quataert is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Southwest Asia and North Africa Program at the State University of New York at Binghamton. He is the author of Social Disintegration and Popular Resistance in the Ottoman Empire.

Refugees, Palestinian Arab--Syria, Arab-Israeli conflict--1993-, and Palestinian Arabs--Syria

One hundred thousand Palestinians fled to Syria after being expelled from Palestine upon the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Integrating into Syrian society over time, their experience stands in stark contrast to the plight of Palestinian refugees in other Arab countries, leading to different ways through which to understand the 1948 Nakba, or catastrophe, in their popular memory. Conducting interviews with first-, second-, and third-generation members of Syria's Palestinian community, Anaheed Al-Hardan follows the evolution of the Nakba—the central signifier of the Palestinian refugee past and present—in Arab intellectual discourses, Syria's Palestinian politics, and the community's memorialization. Al-Hardan's sophisticated research sheds light on the enduring relevance of the Nakba among the communities it helped create, while challenging the nationalist and patriotic idea that memories of the Nakba are static and universally shared among Palestinians. Her study also critically tracks the Nakba's changing meaning in light of Syria's twenty-first-century civil war.

Syria has long been one of the most trouble-prone and politically volatile regions of the Near and Middle Eastern world. This book looks back beyond the troubles of the present to tell the 3000-year story of what happened many centuries before. Trevor Bryce reveals the peoples, cities, and kingdoms that arose, flourished, declined, and disappeared in the lands that now constitute Syria, from the time of it's earliest written records in the third millennium BC until the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian at the turn of the 3-4th century AD. Across the centuries, from the Bronze Age to the Rome Era, we encounter a vast array of characters and civilizations, enlivening, enriching, and besmirching the annals of Syrian history: Hittite and Assyrian Great Kings; Egyptian pharaohs; Amorite robber-barons; the biblically notorious Nebuchadnezzar; Persia's Cyrus the Great and Macedon's Alexander the Great; the rulers of the Seleucid empire; and an assortment of Rome's most distinguished and most infamous emperors. All swept across the plains of Syria at some point in her long history. All contributed, in one way or another, to Syria's special, distinctive character, as they imposed themselves upon it, fought one another within it, or pillaged their way through it. But this is not just a history of invasion and oppression. Syria had great rulers of her own, native-born Syrian luminaries, sometimes appearing as local champions who sought to liberate their lands from foreign despots, sometimes as cunning, self-seeking manipulators of squabbles between their overlords. They culminate with Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, whose life provides a fitting grand finale to the first three millennia of Syria's recorded history. The conclusion looks forward to the Muslim conquest in the 7th century AD: in many ways the opening chapter in the equally complex and often troubled history of modern Syria.

In The Consequences of Syria, Lee Smith analyzes the current U.S. administration's stance on Syria, questioning whether it will build the foundations of a new Middle East or usher in an era of instability that will affect the entire world. The author contends that the many apparent shifts in the administration's Syria policy were part of a messaging campaign intended to camouflage President Obama's determination to stay out of the Syrian conflict. Smith concludes that the next White House will have to deal with a region that contains more violence, betrayed allies, emboldened adversaries, and an Iran almost on the verge of a nuclear breakout that will further destabilize a vital strategic region.

Political violence--Syria--History--21st century, Protest movements--Syria--History--21st century, and Journalists--Syria--Biography

In January 2011 President Bashar al-Assad told the Wall Street Journal that Syria was stable and immune from revolt. In the months that followed, and as regimes fell in Egypt and Tunisia, thousands of Syrians took to the streets calling for freedom, with many dying at the hands of the regime. Stephen Starr delves deep into the lives of Syrians whose destiny has been shaped by the state for almost fifty years. In conversations with people from all strata of Syrian society, Starr draws together and makes sense of perspectives illustrating why Syria, with its numerous sects and religions, was so prone to violence and civil strife. Through his unique access to a country largely cut off from the international media during the unrest, Starr delivers compelling first hand testimony from both those who suffered and benefited most at the hands of the regime. Revolt in Syria details why many Syrians wanted Assad s government to stay as the threat of civil war loomed large, the long-standing gap between the state apparatus and its people and why the country s youth stood up decisively for freedom. Starr also sets out the positions adhered to by the country s minorities and explains why many Syrians believe that enforced regime change might precipitate a region-wide conflict. This revised and updated edition contains a chapter bringing it up to the end of 2013, and examines the experiences of those who have fled the fighting to Turkey and elsewhere.

Peace-building--International cooperation

Can we stop the bleeding in Syria without its becoming another Iraq? The United States is on the brink of intervention in Syria, but the effect of any eventual American action is impossible to predict. The Syrian conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions, yet most observers warn that the worst is still to come. And the international community cannot agree how respond to this humanitarian catastrophe. World leaders have repeatedly resolved not to let atrocities happen in plain view, but the legacy of the bloody and costly intervention in Iraq has left policymakers with little appetite for more military operations. So we find ourselves in the grip of a double burden: the urge to stop the bleeding in Syria, and the fear that attempting to do so would be Iraq redux.What should be done about the apparently intractable Syrian conflict? This book focuses on the ethical and political dilemmas at the heart of the debate about Syria and the possibility of humanitarian intervention in today's world. The contributors—Syria experts, international relations theorists, human rights activists, and scholars of humanitarian intervention—don't always agree, but together they represent the best political thinking on the issue. The Syria Dilemma includes original pieces from Michael Ignatieff, Mary Kaldor, Radwan Ziadeh, Thomas Pierret, Afra Jalabi, and others.ContributorsAsli Bâli, Richard Falk, Tom Farer, Charles Glass, Shadi Hamid, Nader Hashemi, Christopher Hill, Michael Ignatieff, Afra Jalabi, Rafif Jouejati, Mary Kaldor, Marc Lynch, Vali Nasr, Thomas Pierret, Danny Postel, Aziz Rana, Christoph Reuter, Kenneth Roth, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Fareed Zakaria, Radwan Ziadeh, Stephen Zunes

The U.S. intelligence community has assessed “with high confidence” that Syrian government forces used sarin nerve gas in limited attacks earlier this year and conducted a mass casualty chemical weapons attack against rebel held areas near Damascus on August 21, 2013. In June 2013, the Obama Administration stated that reported chemical attacks would lead the United States to offer more material support to the opposition. Secretary of Defense Hagel and Secretary of State Kerry have stated that the United States is providing lethal assistance to vetted members of the Syrian opposition. In response to the alleged chemical attack in August, the President is seeking congressional authorization for a punitive military response intended to deter the Asad regime from using chemical weapons in the future. Members of Congress have offered divergent views concerning the reported use of chemical weapons and proposed responses. The war in Syria and the debate over possible punitive U.S. military action against the Asad regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons pose a uniquely challenging series of questions for policy makers. The overarching questions remain how to define, prioritize, and secure the core interests of the United States with regard to Syria's complex civil war. The immediate questions are whether and how best to respond to the apparent use of chemical weapons in Syria and how such a response might affect U.S. interests and standing regionally and globally. In weighing these questions, Members of Congress and Administration officials are seeking both to protect concrete U.S. national security interests and to preserve abstract international security principles that may serve those interests. This book examines the background issues and U.S. response options in the armed conflict in Syria; the humanitarian respons; and includes remarks made by President Obama in an address to the Nation about Syria on September 10, 2013.

Geopolitics--Syria

Syria has long presented a difficult problem for American policymakers. Actively supportive of groups such as Hezbollah, it has occupied Lebanon for more than 20 years. Damascus remains intransigent on Israel's complete withdrawal from the disputed Golan Heights as the sine qua non for peace with that state. It is often mentioned in the same breath as members of the infamous'axis of evil.'Syria occupies an important strategic position in the Middle Eastone made even more significant as America considers long-term involvement in the reconstruction of Iraq. As the policy challenges posed by Syria's problematic behavior have grown more pressing in the recent security environment, the United States has had difficulty formulating a coherent and effective policy toward Damascus. The death of long-time dictator Hafiz al Assad has forced renewed debate on its place in the region. The transition from Assad to his son Bashar has thrown Western consensus on how to deal with the Syrian leadership further into doubt. In heriting Syria fills this void with a detailed analytic portrait of the Syrian regime under Bashar's leadership. It draws implications for U.S. policy, offering a bold new strategy for achieving American objectives, largely via a strategy of'coordinated engagement'employing both sticks and carrots. This strategy would be independent of the Arab-Israeli peace process, thus a historical departure for the United States. The author's long service in the foreign policy establishment has uniquely positioned him to provide valuable insights into this mysterious yet important country. This book will be of high interest to those concerned about the Middle East, the war on terror, and the future of American foreign policy. Written for a general audience as well as the policymaking and academic communities,her iting Syria is is an important resource for all who seek deeper understanding of this enigmatic nation and its leadership.

Refugees--Iraq, Iraqis--Syria, Iraq War, 2003-2011--Refugees, and Refugees--Syria

During the decade that preceded Syria's 2011 uprising and descent into violence, the country was in the midst of another crisis: the mass arrival of Iraqi migrants and a flood of humanitarian aid to handle the refugee emergency. International aid organizations, the media, and diplomats alike praised the Syrian government for keeping open borders and providing a safe haven for Iraqisfleeing the violence in Baghdad and Iraq's southern provinces. Only a few analysts looked beneath the surface to understand how the apparent generosity toward refugees squared with the ruthless oppression that characterized the Syrian government. In this volume, Hoffmann offers a richly detailed analysis of this contradiction, shedding light on Syria's domestic and international politicsshortly before the outbreak of war.Drawing on firsthand observations and interviews, Hoffmann provides a nuanced portrait of the conditions of daily life for Iraqis living in Syria. She finds that Syria's illiberal government does not differentiate between citizen and foreigner, while the liberal politics of international aid organizations do. Based on detailed ethnographic research, Iraqi Migrants in Syria draws a highly original comparison between the Syrian government's and aid organizations'approaches to Iraqi migration, throwing into question many widely held assumptions about freedom, and its absence, in authoritarian contexts.

Arameans--Syria--Social life and customs and Arameans--Syria--History

In the The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria the authors present the history and culture of the Aramaean kingdoms of Syria from the 12th to the end of the 8th century B.C.

It has been the dominant view that both Syria in the 1980s and Iran today have acted as rogue states in the Middle East threatening to upset the stability of the region. In this innovative new study, Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Raymond Hinnebusch show that these two countries have in fact acted in a rational fashion pursuing the aim of containing Western influence.This book demonstrates how Syrian foreign policy resembles the'rational actor'model and Iran's rational factions in government guide its diplomacy. Syria and Iran's foreign policies are shown to be conventional ones, of'realist'diplomacy with their pursuance of a balance of power and spheres of influence. Their alliance with each other is also closely examined and found to be defensive in nature.Syria and Iran illustrates how these two countries, and their alliance, forms an integral part of the balance of power in the Middle East. It is an exciting contribution to the study of the region, and its application of international relations concepts will be welcomed by those studying this area.

While for many years scholars and journalists have focused on the more obvious manifestations of political life in the Middle East, one major theme has been consistently neglected. This is Pan-Syrian nationalism--the dream of creating a Greater Syria out of an area now governed by Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Turkey. Though not nearly as well known as Arab or Palestinian nationalism and hardly studied in depth, Pan-Syrianism has had a profound effect on Middle Eastern politics since the end of World War I. In Greater Syria, the noted Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes provides the first comprehensive account of this intriguing, important, and little understood ideology.

Ulama--Political activity--Syria

While Syria has been dominated since the 1960s by a determinedly secular regime, the 2011 uprising has raised many questions about the role of Islam in the country's politics. This book demonstrates that with the eradication of the Muslim Brothers after the failed insurrection of 1982, Sunni men of religion became the only voice of the Islamic trend in the country. Through educational programs, charitable foundations and their deft handling of tribal and merchant networks, they took advantage of popular disaffection with secular ideologies to increase their influence over society. In recent years, with the Islamic resurgence, the Alawi-dominated Ba'thist regime was compelled to bring the clergy into the political fold. This relationship was exposed in 2011 by the division of the Sunni clergy between regime supporters, bystanders and opponents. This book affords a new perspective on Syrian society as it stands at the crossroads of political and social fragmentation.

Industrial policy--Syria and Business networks--Syria

Collusion between business communities and the state can lead to a measure of security for those in power, but this kind of interaction often limits new development. In Syria, state-business involvement through informal networks has contributed to an erratic economy. With unique access to private businessmen and select state officials during a critical period of transition, this book examines Syria's political economy from 1970 to 2005 to explain the nation's pattern of state intervention and prolonged economic stagnation. As state income from oil sales and aid declined, collusion was a bid for political security by an embattled regime. To achieve a modicum of economic growth, the Syrian regime would develop ties with select members of the business community, reserving the right to reverse their inclusion in the future. Haddad ultimately reveals that this practice paved the way for forms of economic agency that maintained the security of the regime but diminished the development potential of the state and the private sector.

In 2011, massive protest movements that appeared to come out of nowhere caught the Arab world's autocrats by surprise and brought down powerful leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Thousands of Syrians took to the streets in March 2011 calling for the “fall of the regime,” the popular slogan of Arab uprisings, but found themselves confronting a determined foe willing to slaughter thousands of citizens and to destroy entire city neighborhoods in order to hold onto power. By the middle of 2013, Syria was in the midst of a nightmarish civil war marked by more than 80,000 deaths, sectarian massacres, the flight of one-fourth the country's population from their homes, the disintegration of government institutions in much of the country, and a rising humanitarian crisis as food, medicine, and electricity grew short. Nobody in Syria or the outside world appears to be in a position to stop what looked like a fight to the bitter end, at whatever cost to the country.This third edition of the Historical Dictionary of Syria covers the recent events in Syria as well as the history that led up to these events. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The cross-referenced dictionary section has over 500 entries on significant persons, places and events, political parties and institutions, literature, music and the arts. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Syria.