Different Perspectives on the Syrian Crisis.

• Author: Akgul, Musa
• Position: "Syria: Tragedy of a Pivotal State," "Syrian Requiem: The Civil War and Its Aftermath," "War-Torn: The Unmaking of Syria, 2011-2021"

Syria: Tragedy of a Pivotal State

By Rajendra M. Abhyankar

Palgrave, 2020, 318 pages, $133.82, ISBN: 9789811545610

Syrian Requiem: The Civil War and Its Aftermath

By Itamar Rabinovich and Carmit Valensi

Princeton University Press, 2021, 288 pages, $29.95, ISBN: 9780691193311

War-Torn: The Unmaking of Syria, 2011-2021

By Leila Vignal

Oxford University Press, 2021, 328 pages, $39.95, ISBN: 9780197619988

Introduction

The Syrian crisis has been ongoing for more than 10 years. Since the beginning of the crisis, hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost, dozens of cities have been demolished, and millions of people have become refugees or internally displaced. The Assad regime was able to maintain its hold on power by relying on Russia and Iran, but at the expense of Syria's demographic and economic future. As of this year, the most pressing issues, including millions of migrants, terrorist groups inside the country, and the diplomatic isolation of the regime, have yet to be resolved. The crisis also receives the scholarly attention it deserves with articles and books frequently written by people with academic and professional experience.

This article reviews three recently released books on the Syrian conflict. In the first book, Rajendra M. Abhyankar, a former Indian ambassador to Damascus, provides a comprehensive analysis of the Syrian crisis. In the second book, Syrian Requiem, by Itamar Rabinovitch, a former Israeli ambassador who was a chief negotiator with Syria, attempts to contextualize the conflict in Syria and offer a perspective, with his colleague Carmit Valansi, by tackling certain issues: the state structure of Syria, the state-society relations, the unique role of sectarianism in Syrian politics, and the transformation of regional politics in the Middle East. While these books are worth reading to gain different perspectives on the crisis, they may be considered descriptive since they lack any theoretical or conceptual framework. On the other hand, Leila Vignal, as a geographer, explores the social and spatial reconfiguration of Syria because of the war in War-Torn: The Unmaking of Syria, 2011-2021.

Syria: Tragedy of a Pivotal State

Syria: Tragedy of a Pivotal State clarifies the fundamental internal and external dynamics of the crisis based on Abhyankar's interviews, professional experience as a diplomat, and observations. While the book does provide interesting details about Syria and its tragedy, the factual mistakes and the author's pro-regime perspective attract the reader's attention.

While the introductory chapter describes certain dimensions of the unending war in Syria, the second chapter explains why Syria matters. The country's geostrategic position and pivotal role in the region are shown through the participation of all major and regional powers in the conflict. Syria, becoming a free-fire zone, suffered the highly destructive consequences of the war (p. 23). The author also refers to the term 'eco-sectarianism' to reveal how sectarian violence and environmental pressures play out in the context of the six-year-long drought in Syria (2004-2010) and the high birth ratio (pp. 41-45).

The third chapter demonstrates how the Syrian government could overcome many opposition groups and countries (p. 64). With this claim, however, the author omits the crucial fact that the war has always been asymmetrical and in favor of the regime since the beginning. Another interesting aspect of the conflict, as shown by the author, is that the Syrian government claimed its sovereignty in distributing the humanitarian aid provided by the United Nations (UN) (p. 67). These benefits and resources were critical to the regime's resilience in challenging times. Moreover, the control over the UN aid enabled the regime to retrieve its international sovereignty. On the other hand, the regime did not refrain from using indiscriminate violence and chemical weapons to spread fear among the people and intimidate the opposition (p. 70). Systematic attacks were carried out in rebel-held areas against public services, including hospitals and bakeries (p. 71). In this way, the Syrian government tried to undermine the emergence of any alternative rebel governance. Though the author mentions these, he does not point out the connection between these dynamics.

The next chapter analyzes the rise of the Assad family and the reasons for the polarization in the country. Hafez al-Assad, the designer of modern Syria, strengthened his one-man rule through a divide-and-rule system (p. 79). In time, Alawis became dominant over the Sunni majority, despite the Ba'ath socialist ideology advocating secular Arab unity. When it comes to Bashar al-Assad, the author interestingly asserts that "the pluralistic state remains the defining factor in his staying power" (p. 89), and "the last forty years have shown that the Syrian Army is not a sectarian army" (p. 90). However, it is debatable to what extent the technical ability of Sunnis, Christians, or Kurds to rise to high ranks in the public sector or army can be interpreted as a defining factor of pluralism given the Alawite domination of the political sphere.

In the fifth chapter, the role of regional and international...