Stifling stateness: The Assad regime's campaign against rebel governance.

José Ciro Martínez,Brent Eng

doi:10.1177/0967010618768622

José Ciro Martínez, Brent Eng

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010618768622

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Abstract

This article assesses the impact of the Assad regime’s aerial bombardment campaign on a frequently neglected component of Syria’s ongoing civil war: rebel governance. While analysis of the military and humanitarian ramifications of such attacks has been extensive, these perspectives fail to consider how the Assad regime’s counter insurgency efforts subvert governance practices by Syria’s diverse rebel groups. Drawing on performative approaches to the ‘state’, we argue that opposition groups’ daily enactments of ‘stateness’ via two key welfare services – bread and healthcare provision – constitute a historically inflected and locally grounded critique of the incumbent. When executed successfully, such enactments can stabilize relations between rulers and ruled while offering a vision of an alternative polity. They can also attract the attention of rivals. The Assad regime’s aerial bombing campaign of rebel-held areas is thus neither a haphazard military strategy nor simply the product of long-standing sectarian hatreds, but a deliberate tactic through which it seeks to destroy a key threat to its authority.

Highlights

On the evening of 30 May 2016, fighter jets loyal to Bashar al-Assad carried out overnight airstrikes against the city of Idlib, a de facto rebel stronghold (Al Jazeera, 2016).1 The bombing targeted the public hospital and its surroundings, killing as many as 60 people and injuring over 100, according to local activists
We present a brief history of two key welfare services in Syria – healthcare and bread provision – so as to contextualize their salience during the current conflict
If the Syrian government’s bombing of bakeries represents a challenge to one fundamental premise on which opposition groups rest their claim to authority – the capacity to provide a minimal level of subsistence – the deliberate bombardment of hospitals represents another direct challenge to a key rebel claim: the ability to ensure physical security and health

Summary

Introduction

On the evening of 30 May 2016, fighter jets loyal to Bashar al-Assad carried out overnight airstrikes against the city of Idlib, a de facto rebel stronghold (Al Jazeera, 2016).1 The bombing targeted the public hospital and its surroundings, killing as many as 60 people and injuring over 100, according to local activists. Better financed and armed than other opposition brigades, Islamist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham would eventually exploit the financial and institutional vacuum.11 In Idlib, the provision of most welfare services lies not with armed actors, but with an array of civilian-run city and town councils, which tend to draw their members from local communities.12 Typically, these bodies consist of a central administrative council linked to specialized offices focused on emergency relief and more typical municipal services, such as waste removal and water supply.13 There were as many as 144 local councils in Idlib at the beginning of 2017, including 30 larger councils that work at a city level (Heller, 2016).

Results

Conclusion