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State and Tribes in Syria
State and Tribes in Syria: Informal Alliances and Conflict Patterns explores the policies of the successive Syrian governments towards the Arab tribes and their reactions to these policies. The book examines the consequences of the relationship between state and tribe since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and its withdrawal from Syria in 1916 until the eruption of the current Syrian civil war. Throughout history and up to the present day, tribalism continues to influence many issues related to governance, conflict and stability in the Middle East and North Africa. The book provides a dissection of a crucial, but neglected axis of the current crisis on the relationship between the state and th...
Spoils of War in the Arab East
Post-conflict scenarios are often proposed for Arab countries that have witnessed significant changes and civil wars. Yet the plans for reconciliation, transitional justice, and the return of the displaced often overlook the real conditions that make these recommendations impossible. This book provides a critical analysis of current post-conflict frameworks for Syria and Iraq. Drawing on empirical research, the book shows that reconciliation and reconstruction scenarios need to be considered alongside the realities on the ground. It argues that Iraq and Syria exist in a condition of 'conflict transformation' rather than of 'conflict termination', because the extreme changes that accompanied ...
The Syrian Information and Propaganda War
This book focuses on the propaganda war between the Syrian government and the opposition movement, which excludes the Islamic State and the Kurdish-led SDF. Drawing on international relations, psychology, and media studies, the book encourages readers to question the dominant discourse on the war. The core of the book outlines the propaganda battles over the main paradigms and narratives that framed the war, exploring the shortcomings of those paradigms and narratives, identifying who won the propaganda war and why, and assessing what impact it had on the military side of the war. In particular, it focuses on the role of cognitive bias amongst primary and secondary sources in determining the...
Kurds and Their Struggle for Autonomy
Kurds and their Struggle for Autonomy: Enduring Identity and Clientelism is a comprehensive study of the roots of Kurdish identity, the processes of identity formation among the Kurds, and the Kurds’ seemingly never-ending struggle for self-determination. By relying on a hybrid theoretical model of identity politics, this book offers a thorough treatment of the origins, characteristics, and evolution of Kurdish culture in general, and political culture in particular. It also examines the historical explanations and nuances of Kurdish struggles for some form of autonomy, assesses economic imperatives that shape the potentials and challenges of Kurdish social and political life, and offers a critical review of the contemporary Kurdish institutional and policy dynamics in Iraq and Syria.
Redefining Ceasefires
Since 2012, ceasefires have been used in Syria to halt violence and facilitate peace agreements. However, in this book, Marika Sosnowski argues that a ceasefire is rarely ever just a 'cease fire'. Instead, she demonstrates that ceasefires are not only military tactics but are also tools of wartime order and statebuilding. Bringing together rare primary documents and first-hand interviews with over eighty Syrians and other experts, Sosnowski offers original insights into the most critical conflict of our time, the Syrian civil war. From rebel governance to citizen and property rights, humanitarian access to economic networks, ceasefires have a range of heretofore underexamined impacts. Using the most prominent ceasefires of the war as case studies, Sosnowski demonstrates the diverse consequences of ceasefires and provides a fuller, more nuanced portrait of their role in conflict resolution.
The Caliph and the Imam
The authoritative account of Islam's schism that for centuries has shaped events in the Middle East and the Islamic world. In 632, soon after the Prophet Muhammad died, a struggle broke out among his followers as to who would succeed him. Most Muslims argued that the leader of Islam should be elected by the community's elite and rule as Caliph. They would later become the Sunnis. Otherswho would become known as the Shiabelieved that Muhammad had designated his cousin and son-in-law Ali as his successor, and that henceforth Ali's offspring should lead as Imams. This dispute over who should guide Muslims, the Caliph or the Imam, marks the origin of the Sunni-Shii split in Islam. Toby Matthiese...
Surviving the Islamic State
How did ordinary Iraqis survive the occupation of their communities by the Islamic State? How did they decide whether to stay or flee, to cooperate or resist? Based on an original survey from Baghdad alongside key interviews in the field, this book offers an insightful account of how Iraqis in different areas of the country responded to the rise and fall of the Islamic State. Austin J. Knuppe argues that people adopt survival repertoires—a variety of social practices, tools, organized routines, symbols, and rhetorical strategies—to navigate wartime violence and detect threats. He traces how repertoires varied among different communities over the course of the conflict. In areas insulated...
Strongman’s Brokers
This book explores the critical role of informal diplomats in shaping contemporary global politics as they navigate complex networks of power and influence in the age of strongman leaders. The world of international relations has long been viewed as the domain of state institutions and career diplomats. But in the age of strongman leaders, a new set of actors has emerged as key players in foreign policy: informal diplomats drawn from diasporas, religious communities, and trade networks. Through a collection of essays by historians, anthropologists, and political scientists, this book traces the historical parallels and continuities between these informal diplomats and the diasporic networks ...
Battleground
The essential guide to geopolitics in the modern Middle East The Middle East is in crisis. The shocking events of the war in Gaza have rocked the entire region. More than a decade ago, the Arab Spring had raised hopes of a new beginning but instead ushered in a series of civil wars, coups, and even harsher autocracies. Tensions were exacerbated by the meddling of outsiders, as regional and global powers sought to further their interests. The United States, for so long the dominant actor, had stepped back, leaving a vacuum behind it to be fought over. Christopher Phillips explores geopolitical rivalries in the region, and the major external powers vying for influence: Russia, China, the EU, and the US. Moving through ten key flashpoints, from Syria to Palestine, Phillips argues that the United States' overextension after the Cold War, and retreat in the 2010s, has imbalanced the region. Today, the Middle East remains blighted by conflicts of unprecedented violence and a post-American scramble for power - leaving its fate in the balance.
