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From a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist specializing in the Middle East, this groundbreaking account of the Syrian Civil War reveals the never-before-published true story of a 21st-century humanitarian disaster. In spring 2011, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad turned to his friend and army commander, Manaf Tlass, for advice about how to respond to Arab Spring-inspired protests. Tlass pushed for conciliation but Assad decided to crush the uprising -- an act which would catapult the country into an eight-year long war, killing almost half a million and fueling terrorism and a global refugee crisis. Assad or We Burn the Country examines Syria's tragedy through the generational saga of the Assad and Tlass families, once deeply intertwined and now estranged in Bashar's bloody quest to preserve his father's inheritance. By drawing on his own reporting experience in Damascus and exclusive interviews with Tlass, Dagher takes readers within palace walls to reveal the family behind the destruction of a country and the chaos of an entire region. Dagher shows how one of the world's most vicious police states came to be and explains how a regional conflict extended globally, engulfing the Middle East and pitting the United States and Russia against one another. Timely, propulsive, and expertly reported, Assad or We Burn the Country is the definitive account of this global crisis, going far beyond the news story that has dominated headlines for years.
One of the most striking recent developments in the modern Middle East has been the transformation of Syria under Hafez al-Assad from a weak, vulnerable and internally divided state to a leading regional power. While this is increasingly acknowledged by observers of the Middle Eastern scene , the scholarly discussion of the origins, the scope, the durability and the implications of this change is only beginning to take place. Syria Under Assad addresses itself to this discussion. Based on a carefully selected collection of original articles, this volume focuses on the elements of Syria’s power, on Syria’s relations with each of its neighbours as well as on Syria’s relations with the superpowers. In the final analysis, conclude the editors, Syrian policies appear paradoxical. Its conduct ever since the advent of Hafez al-Assad exhibits subtle and hard-nosed pragmatism. Yet, in order to consolidate the domestic legitimacy of the Alawi Ba’athist regime, Syria has been impelled to articulate its foreign policy goals in the far-flung rhetoric of the Ba’athist ideology. As a result Syria is widely perceived of as a menace and, treated as such, it often responds in kind.
Today Syria is a country known for all the wrong reasons: civil war, vicious sectarianism, and major humanitarian crisis. But how did this once rich, multi-cultural society end up as the site of one of the twenty-first century’s most devastating and brutal conflicts? In this incisive book, internationally renowned Syria expert David Lesch takes the reader on an illuminating journey through the last hundred years of Syrian history – from the end of the Ottoman empire through to the current civil war. The Syria he reveals is a fractured mosaic, whose identity (or lack thereof) has played a crucial part in its trajectory over the past century. Only once the complexities and challenges of Syria’s history are understood can this pivotal country in the Middle East begin to rebuild and heal.
State expansion caused the reorganization of social conflict, promoting intense polarization between radicals and conservatives, high levels of popular mobilization, and a shift in the preferences of the Ba'th from an accommodationist to a radically populist strategy for consolidating its system of rule."--BOOK JACKET.
The massive dimensions of Syria's refugee crisis—and the search for solutions The civil war in Syria has forced some 10 million people—more than half the country's population—from their homes and communities, creating one of the largest human displacements since the end of World War II. Daily headlines testify to their plight, both within Syria and in the countries to which they have fled. The Consequences of Chaos looks beyond the ever-increasing numbers of Syria's uprooted to consider the long-term economic, political, and social implications of this massive movement of people. Neighboring countries hosting thousands or even millions of refugees, Western governments called upon to provide financial assistance and even new homes for the refugees, regional and international organizations struggling to cope with the demands for food and shelter—all have found the Syria crisis to be overwhelming in its challenges. And the challenges of finding solutions for those displaced by the conflict are likely to continue for years, perhaps even for decades. The Syrian displacement crisis raises fundamental questions about the relationship between action to resolve conflicts and humanitarian aid to assist the victims and demonstrates the limits of humanitarian response, even on a massive scale, to resolve political crises. The increasingly protracted nature of the crisis also raises the need for the international community to think beyond just relief assistance and adopt developmental policies to help refugees become productive members of their host communities.
Following the Arab Spring, Syria descended into civil and sectarian conflict. It has since become a fractured warzone which operates as a breeding ground for new terrorist movements including ISIS as well as the root cause of the greatest refugee crisis in modern history. In this important book, former Special Envoy of the Netherlands to Syria, Nikolaos van Dam, explains the recent history of Syria, covering the growing disenchantment with the Asad regime, the chaos of civil war and the fractures which led to an immense amount of destruction in the refined social fabric of what used to be the Syrian nation. Through an in-depth examination, van Dam traces political developments within the Asad regime and the various opposition groups from the Arab Spring to the present day, and provides a deeper insight into the conflict and the possibilities and obstacles for reaching a political solution.
Provides an original analysis of the routine and spectacular forms of violence deployed by the Asad regime in Syria over the last four decades.
*Includes pictures. *Includes excerpts from interviews of the Assad family. *Explains the Assad family's religious and ethnic background, as well as modern Syria's history. *Includes a bibliography for further reading. "I'm not a puppet. I wasn't made by the west to go to the west or any other country. I'm Syrian. I'm made in Syria. I have to live in Syria and die in Syria." - Bashar al-Assad, 2012 In early 2011, a political movement swept across the Arabic speaking world that toppled despotic regimes and dictatorships. The political movement, which became known as the "Arab Spring," was popular in nature and made use of the internet, particularly social networking websites, to remove dictators such as Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and Muammar Qadaffi of Libya. Those dictators, who ruled their countries for decades, were unable to stem the tide of popular indignation against them even though they tried using force and propaganda in ways reminiscent of the Cold War era. While some of these dictators bowed to the political pressure and others were pushed out by force through civil wars, the events of the Arab Spring have come to be overshadowed by the civil war in the Arabic speaking nation of Syria, which has been ruled throughout the 21st century by Bashar al-Assad. Though he had not planned on ruling Syria, several events conspired to make Bashar the successor of his father Hafez, who himself was notorious for crushing an uprising in the Syrian city of Hama by massacring thousands of inhabitants. Though the West frequently looked for signs that Bashar might be a reformer, due in part to his formerly popular Western wife, Assad remained part of a critical alliance with Iran and the sub-state groups Hamas and Hezbollah, forming an influential bloc that has influenced events across the Middle East, and one that Israel and the West have tried to break over the past decade. Like the other dictators, Assad faced popular demonstrations against his regime at the height of the Arab Spring, but the outcome has proved to be much different there than in the other Arab nations. Assad steadfastly refused to step down from power, and the protests against him and his government quickly turned violent, which eventually enveloped Syria in a civil war that has already killed over 100,000, left over half a million refugees, and shows no signs of ending anytime soon. Furthermore, on August 21, 2013, a chemical weapon attack outside of the capital city Damascus left around 1,500 civilians dead, and anti-Assad factions in Syria, as well as enemies of the Assad regime in other countries, have blamed Bashar for the attack, while Assad claims his enemies are responsible. A crisis that may have threatened to involve either the United States, Russia, or both, appears to have been solved at least temporarily, but bigger issues concerning Syria still remain. The two major questions that concern the future of Syria are whether Bashar al-Assad will literally and politically survive the civil war, and what Syria's future will be in the wake of the civil war. Answering these questions requires an understanding of Bashar's religious sect, the Alawites, the regional strife among Sunni and Shiite nations, Arab nationalism, and the Assad family as a whole. Syria and the Assad Family is a history that examines how Hafez al-Assad's middle son grew up and the events that brought him to power in Syria. It also comprehensively analyzes the ongoing civil war against Assad. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Syria's notorious dictator like you never have before.
Ever since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, fighters from abroad have journeyed in ever-greater numbers to conflict zones in the Muslim world to defend Islam from-in their view-infidels and apostates. The phenomenon recently reached its apogee in Syria, where the foreign fighter population quickly became larger and more diverse than in any previous conflict. In Road Warriors, Daniel Byman provides a sweeping history of the jihadist foreign fighter movement. He begins by chronicling the movement's birth in Afghanistan, its growing pains in Bosnia and Chechnya, and its emergence as a major source of terrorism in the West in the 1990s, culminating in the 9/11 attacks. Since that bloody day, the foreign fighter movement has seen major ups and downs. It rode high after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, when the ultra-violent Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) attracted thousands of foreign fighters. AQI overreached, however, and suffered a crushing defeat. Demonstrating the resilience of the movement, however, AQI reemerged anew during the Syrian civil war as the Islamic State, attracting tens of thousands of fighters from around the world and spawning the bloody 2015 attacks in Paris among hundreds of other strikes. Although casualty rates are usually high, the survivors of Afghanistan, Syria, and other fields of jihad often became skilled professional warriors, going from one war to the next. Still others returned to their home countries, some to peaceful retirement but a deadly few to conduct terrorist attacks. Over time, both the United States and Europe have learned to adapt. Before 9/11, volunteers went to and fro to Afghanistan and other hotspots with little interference. Today, the United States and its allies have developed a global program to identify, arrest, and kill foreign fighters. Much remains to be done, however-jihadist ideas and networks are by now deeply embedded, even as groups such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State rise and fall. And as Byman makes abundantly clear, the problem is not likely to go away any time soon.