Syrian Government Research Articles

Syrian War Economies

Abstract Accounts of the Syrian conflict tend to emphasize “top-down” geopolitics or “bottom-up” local-national conflict dynamics. As a contribution to this roundtable on rethinking war economies, I argue that political economy and comparative approaches can help explain the connections between global-regional processes and domestic institutional transformations brought by war. Institutional development under Asad left a contradictory legacy: the Syrian regime was incapable of compromise with domestic opposition in 2011, but it proved resilient in the ensuing devastating war that subjected the government to international sanctions, external interventions, and territorial fragmentation. The Syrian regime responded to these shocks by reconfiguring its elite networks of power, which further blurred the lines between formal and informal institutions. As its financial resources dropped, the regime initiated new economic policies, but these attempts were refracted through the distortions of the war, and either became predatory or were paradoxically blocked by the elite networks crafted earlier as a survival strategy.

Comparing universal jurisdiction in Europe and in Latin America: a vehicle for international justice or for colonial reckoning?

ABSTRACT A particular concern in recent years has been the limited options for prosecutions of persons responsible for atrocities in States not amenable to ICC jurisdiction. The need for accountability for atrocities builds on long histories of human rights and humanitarian law practice, both treaty-based and customary in nature, which has been driven also by the work of the ECtHR and the IACtHR mechanisms. At the domestic level, ever since the Pinochet decision, universal jurisdiction (UJ) has been considered a promising way to fill the lacuna. Indeed, some commentators have observed a resurgence in the use of UJ in recent years based on a number of trials of ex-ISIS and Syrian regime members in European courts. Yet UJ as it has been practised has serious limitations. While there are exceptions, many European states are steadily turning the exercise of UJ into the application of extraterritorial jurisdiction based on active or passive personality, especially in relation to their former colonies. In Latin America too, there have been some recent examples of investigations and prosecutions on the basis of ‘pure’ UJ, but the vast majority of exercises of jurisdiction are in furtherance of extraditions, particularly at the behest of former colonial powers. This article compares the recent uptick in European and Latin American usages of UJ, concluding that to date both regions still exhibit little appetite for pursuing ‘pure’ UJ. It warns that significant colonialist pressures in both regions threaten to limit this crucial mechanism for international justice.

Hidden scars: the persistent multifaceted health and psychosocial consequences for Syrian torture survivors.

Background: The impact on the physical and mental health of those who survived torture and their close circles in the Syrian regime's detention facilities remains under-studied.Objective: This qualitative study explored Syrian refugees' narrations of captivity and torture, and the consequences of such extreme traumatic events on their physical and psychosocial health.Method: Thirteen audio-recorded interviews were conducted in Arabic with Syrian refugees. Study participants were at least 19 years of age, resided in diverse urban areas of Jordan, had experienced captivity and torture in Syrian detention facilities, and voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. Participation was anonymous, only oral consent was required, and no incentives were provided to participants. Interviews were transcribed and translated into English by a team of researchers, followed by analysis of repetitive themes according to the narrative paradigm.Results: Analysis of interviews elicited three major themes: extreme traumatic experiences of torture, and its physical and psychosocial health consequences. The first major theme was divided into two sub-themes: torture experienced by the participants themselves, and torture experienced by participants' close circles. The second major theme, pertaining to physical health, was divided into two sub-themes: acute and chronic health sequelae. The third major theme, related to psychosocial health, was divided into four sub-themes: mental health symptomatology, impacts on professional life, impacts on interpersonal relationships, and social consequences.Conclusions: Torture experiences of Syrian refugees had adverse consequences for the physical and psychosocial health, functioning, and the overall well-being of survivors and their close circles. Interventions may seek to improve both the acute and chronic health consequences, as well as the mental health symptoms and associated impacts on livelihood, professional, and relationship dynamics. They should span clinical, legal, and advocacy spheres, given that a holistic approach may contribute immensely to survivors' healing process.

Humanitarianism as a tool of statecraft: contested authority, sovereign violence, and humanity in the Syrian civil war.

This research explores the dynamics of interaction between the sovereign state and international humanitarian organisations in alleviating human suffering in the Syrian civil war. Considering civil wars as a rupture in sovereignty, its focus is on the practices of the sovereign state within its social context and the resulting implications for aid organisations. I argue that the Syrian regime has employed state violence, in tandem with administrative and bureaucratic impediments, to reassert its sovereign authority in humanitarian decision-making processes. This exercise of sovereign power is intertwined with the actions of aid organisations, thereby reshaping power dynamics among the state, aid organisations, and vulnerable populations. Through a qualitative method, I show that the deployment of state violence concomitantly pushes aid organisations, specifically the United Nations, towards enforcing the state sovereignty defined by the regime. As an effect of assertive sovereignty, interpretations of humanitarian principles and practices are continuously negotiated and constructed differently by aid organisations, even though they share a common overarching goal.

An Examination of Heba Al-Dubbagh's Just Five Minutes: Nine Years in the Prisons of Syria Through The Scope of Foucault’s Theory of Power Relations

The present study deals with Foucault’s theory of Power Relations in Prison Literature. It focuses on Heba Al-Dabbagh's Just Five Minutes: Nine Years in the Prisons of Syria. The study argues that examining Power Relations in this novel shows how prison narratives can reflect and challenge hierarchies, authority, and resistance in such environments. It also seeks to show how Al-Dabbagh represents the effect of power relation on prisoners and the prison guards in her novel by relying heavily upon the theoretical framework of Power Relation by Michael Foucault. Using a Foucauldian perspective, this research emphasizes how the Syrian regime's exertion of power was based on establishing an atmosphere of fear, in which the individual is reduced to a passive subject of the state.

Quantifying the effects of attacks on health facilities on health service use in Northwest Syria: a case time series study from 2017 to 2019

BackgroundThroughout the Syrian conflict, the Syrian government has intentionally attacked health facilities, violating International Humanitarian Law. Previous studies have qualitatively described health system disruptions following attacks on healthcare or established...

Memory, fear, and manipulated sectarianism: Exploring Christian views and intercommunal dynamics in Al‐Hasakah amidst the Syrian uprising

AbstractThe Syrian uprising and subsequent civil war have been extensively studied with a predominant emphasis on sectarianism between the Sunni and Alawite sects. This narrow focus overlooks the profound influence of other religious and ethnic elements within Syrian society. This article aims to broaden the analytical lens by examining the position and attitudes of Christians in the Al‐Hasakah governorate regarding the Syrian uprising and opposition forces. The article addresses two key inquiries: first, the factors influencing Christians' position in Al‐Hasakah regarding the Syrian uprising, and second, the ramifications of these positions on intercommunal relationships in the region. The paper argues that the collective memory of fear experienced by Christians, manipulated by the Syrian regime, has contributed to the emergence of “sectarianism from below” and “sectarianism from above.” The former reflects the construction of sectarian identities by Christians in response to discrimination and marginalization, while the latter pertains to influential institutions perpetuating sectarian identities and divisions. The findings highlight the complex interplay of factors shaping communal attitudes and relations during times of upheaval and conflict.

Sectarianism, indiscriminate violence and displacement in the Syrian Regime’s Civil War strategy

ABSTRACT In the Syrian Civil War, external observers have often misunderstood and misrepresented the nature and significance of indiscriminate violence that drives displacement, with the result that it has been (mis)understood as being driven by primordial sectarian hatred. This is of course far from the only contemporary civil war in which sectarianism has been ascribed without due care and consideration. While this article acknowledges sectarianism as part of the conflict; however, it treats it as less of a natural ‘outgrowth’ and more as part of a calculated and deliberate ‘coercive counterinsurgency’ strategy that the Regime has applied across the country. The article suggests that indiscriminate violence, which we might otherwise be predisposed to view as an ‘excess’, should be understood as part of a strategy, and more specifically a ‘coercive counterinsurgency’. Therefore, the article identifies four population displacement strategies (bombings, blockades, starvation and massacres) that the Regime has applied in four parts of the country and brings out their strategic features in clearer detail. Ultimately, the reader will come to understand how sectarianism, indiscriminate violence, and displacement function as part of an integrated ‘coercive counterinsurgency’ strategy that the Regime has developed and applied over the course of the Civil War.

Emergence, Development, and Impact of Population Displacement in Damascus During Syria’s Civil War

Although displacement has been an important feature of many contemporary conflicts, this has not been accompanied by a sustained recognition or acknowledgement that it is an active or ongoing dimension of conflict, with the result that it, more often than not, has been viewed and discussed as a consequence of conflict; that is, as something that occurs as a result of armed conflict. Although the manipulation of civilian populations for political purposes has been discussed and recognized by counter-insurgency theorists, this has not yet informed nor produced a full and complete understanding of displacement, or more precisely its strategic dimensions, in the contemporary context. In other instances, the specificity of displacement more generally has been ignored, with the result that it has been equated with ethnic cleansing. This article seeks to contribute to an enhanced understanding of displacement by showing how it became part of the Syrian regime’s attempts to re-establish control of suburban areas of Damascus. In doing so, I break the practice into its specific components, which include siege operations, extensive use of aerial bombardment and the use of weapons likely to produce massive civilian casualties, including chemical weapons, ‘earthquake’ and ‘vacuum’ bombs and unguided munitions with wide-area effects. I conclude that in these areas of the capital, Regime actions most closely approximated to the depopulation model of strategic displacement.

How Bashar al-Asad Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the “War on Terror”

Abstracts This article draws on regime newspaper archives and the Arabic-language speeches of and interviews with Syrian president Bashar al-Asad over the last two decades to track how Syrian governmental rhetoric on the question of “terrorism” has changed over time. Engaging with the literature on how ideas, technologies, and contentious repertoires diffuse and spread and how regimes learn from each other, I show how the Asad regime has moved from a discourse that saw “terrorism” as a Western and/or Israeli concept used to delegitimize primarily Palestinian and Lebanese resistance sponsored by Damascus to a discourse that embraces the rhetoric of the “war on terror” in order to legitimize the regime's counterinsurgency policies during the current conflict. I argue that this rhetorical shift is dependent on the ethno-sectarian identity of the population in question through a comparison of regime rhetoric on three separate uprisings in recent Syrian history: the current uprising (2011–present); the Kurdish uprising of 2004; and the Druze uprising in 2000. Since the current uprising is seen as a predominantly Sunni Arab affair, the Syrian regime has used “war on terror” rhetoric in ways that it did not during the Kurdish and Druze uprisings. I then situate this rhetorical move in time as a post-9/11 development by comparing current regime rhetoric with that of the Hafez al-Asad regime's rhetoric during the uprising centered in Hama in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Internal Conflict of Syria in The Construction of Al-Jazeera

This study aims to analyze Al-Jazeera's contribution on the dynamics of the internal conflict in Syria. The method used in this study is qualitative descriptive method with Nicholas Onuf's constructivism approach. Researchers collected primary data by interviewing a number of relevant informants and secondary data through documentation studies, archival, document-based research, and internet-based research. This study found that the media not only functions as a monitor, but can also be used as a driving force by state actors. In addition, it was found that there were actions taken by al - Jazeera as an agent and information service provider which encourages the Syrian people to move and ultimately stimulates the internal conflict between the Syrian regime and the Syrian people. This study has limitation in concern to the dynamics of the conflict in the Middle East extensively, which also participate to provide settings to the internal conflict in Syria. However, this study is able to contribute to the development of the repertoire of International Relations Studies, especially in the understanding of the contribution of global media to the socio-political dynamics of a country.

‘The National Interest of Israel-Turkey Engagement on Syria Civil War Related to US Foreign Policy of Pulling out Forces’

Since 2011, when Protests against President Assad's rule triggered a large-scale conflict between anti-government rebel groups sponsored by the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and others countries. regional allies, and the Syrian government backed by Russia and Iran, the Syrian civil war has colored the international relations issue. This article focuses on US policies in Syria and Israel-Turkey's national interests in the region. The purpose of the paper is to conduct an assessment on Syria civil war related to US foreign policy of pulling out forces and theirs impacts. This research employs qualitative method . The results demonstrate that Trump's actions have exposed some unsettling truths and realities regarding US strategy toward Syria. Yes, Trump has acted as both an arsonist and a firefighter.. These developments therefore give rise to a new period of conflict between Israel and Turkey based on their respective national interests. Finally, President Donald Trump's administration's foreign policy toward Syria has considered the tragic drama in Syria

Explaining Sectarian Dynamics in the Syrian Governorate of Deir Ezzor Through the Lens of Instrumentalism and Historical Sociology

Abstract This paper traces the rise of sectarianism in the Syrian governorate of Deir Ezzor from the 1970s up to the current civil war. To this end, this research will focus on answering two main questions: “what factors made sectarianism prevalent in Deir Ezzor after 2003?” and “how did attempts by the Syrian regime, Iran, and Islamists to use sectarianism to mobilize people, lead to the catastrophe in Deir Ezzor during the Syrian civil war?” The primordial framework that considers sectarianism to be a consequence of age-old religious differences between Sunni and Shiʿite Muslims is rejected in this paper. This paper shows that a better understanding of sectarianism can be found through a synthesis of instrumentalism and historical sociology. The historical sociology framework provides an understanding of how adverse socioeconomic conditions and security threats in Deir Ezzor led to the rise of sectarianism, whilst instrumentalism explains how the regime, Iran, and the Islamists used sectarian identities to retain control over the population of Deir Ezzor.

THE INFLUENCE OF US POLICY ON THE FORMATION OF A COMMON APPROACH BETWEEN IRAN AND RUSSIA TO RESOLVE THE SYRIAN CRISIS

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the US has always played the most important and influential role in the Iran-Russia relations. From the second half of the 1990s, one of the US foreign policy priorities has constantly been on the separation and divergence in the Iran-Russia relations, for which the US spared no efforts. Since the synergy of powers between the two countries and their anti-unipolar policies have always been a serious threat to the US hegemony at a global level, by the beginning of the Syria crisis in late 2010, following the Arab Spring, the US interests and goals were directly at odds with Iran’s and Russia’s political and security interests. The goals of Washington in the Syria crisis included: the decline of the Syrian government, the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, and an effort to establish a pro-Western government to eliminate the sole ally of Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and also to prevent Iran’s regional penetration, particularly its proxy groups like Hezbollah. For achieving these goals, Washington has profited from its allied countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, as a front line. The US strategy in Syria not only exacerbated the crisis but also provided a situation in which Iran and Russia achieved their highest level of military and security cooperation in the past three decades. And it was precisely the same incident that the US considered a serious threat to its national interests and policies. Although Iran and Russia have pursued specific and sometimes contradictory interests, in the end, focusing on common goals and threats – arising from the Syrian crisis – they were able to cooperate effectively and take a new step in building a strategic unity.

Сирийская экономика и санкции: ситуативная адаптация

War, loss of control over part of the territory, and economic sanctions have had a devastating effect on Syria’s economy. However, the country has managed to survive. This has been possible in part due to the measures of the Syrian government, private business, and the population to resist and adapt to economic sanctions. The adaptation strategy had not been planned, and the measures the state, private business, and the population have taken were not coordinated, unlike, for example, in Iran’s case, where strategies are developed and then announced based on future economic risks. Because of this, this strategy of counteraction and adaptation to economic sanctions may be termed as adaptive. The most serious economic sanctions on the Syrian economy have been imposed by the US, the EU, and the League of Arab States. They have restricted Syrian access to goods, technology, financial instruments and products, investments, and even in some cases humanitarian aid from the countries that initiated the sanctions. It is a very difficult task to identify the real Syrian losses caused by the economic sanctions, but it can be accurately asserted, based on the analysis in this article, that they do not allow the country to move forward to the recovery phase. State measures of adaptation to economic sanctions were supposed to become a buffer that would allow the national economy not only to survive, but also to move from stagnation to economic growth. However, it has to be stated that the situational strategy of adaptation to economic sanctions allowed the national economy to remain in a viable state, however, it does not allow it to move from recession to growth.

Tracing Death as a Political Instrument: A Study of Osama Alomar’s Selected Collections of Flash Fiction

This research article analyzes two collections of flash fiction including Fullblood Arabian (2014) and The Teeth of the Comb and Other Stories (2017) written by Osama Alomar, a Syrian refugee author. Guided by the theoretical framework of necropolitics as proposed by Achille Mbembe, this article investigates the constant presence of death and its multifaceted role in the wake of the Syrian civil war as portrayed in Alomar’s selected collections of flash fiction. The article attempts to study how death becomes an instrument in the civil war, widely used, manipulated, and exploited by various actors during the conflict-ridden period, each employing it differently. Although the selected collections of flash fiction demonstrate that death takes on many forms and performs multiple functions in the backdrop of the Syrian civil war, this research article narrows its scope to the analysis of how death is used as a political pawn and a political statement. At the outset of this research, it is postulated that the ruling Syrian regime transforms death and its fear into an instrument to intimidate and subdue Syrian civilian characters, thereby downplaying death as merely a political pawn. On the contrary, death also emerges as a political statement of the Syrian civilian characters as they begin to embrace death as a form of political activism to bring about social and political change in Syria. Invoking Catherine Belsey’s textual analysis method, some flash fiction stories from the selected collections are analyzed to study how the ruling Syrian regime and civilian characters reconfigure death in the wake of the Syrian civil war.

Factors affecting women entrepreneurship in developing countries. How far are we from supporting women entrepreneurship?

This study was conducted in the coastal region of Syria during 2022, shedding the spotlight on a group of female entrepreneurs domiciled in the Latakian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The study relied on a wide range of primary and secondary data to identify, ascertain, and define the factors embracing female entrepreneurship and the impact of the Syrian crisis on these factors. The purpose of the study is to examine the realistic status of women's entrepreneurial projects in Syria by focusing on their strengths and weaknesses of their energy utilization as an active force in achieving more economic growth. A qualitative research method was used to analyze the internal and external environment of entrepreneurship from the viewpoint of the participating female entrepreneurs. The primary results showed that the dissatisfaction and pressure factors are the main drivers towards women entrepreneurship in Syria, creating a space for creativity and stepping up out of the societal traditional norms. However, pressure economic factors such as poverty, lack of job opportunities and limited income possibilities are the most important reasons for incentivizing women to enter the leadership field and becoming entrepreneurs. The main challenges facing women entrepreneurs in Syria are the social traditions and norms, followed by the lack of management skills and the negative perception of society towards a working woman in addition to the absence of designed crafted training and entrepreneurial oriented education. Despite the Syrian government's adoption of entrepreneurial designed plans as one of the tools to empower women and enabling them to be financially productive therefore to reduce poverty, interest appears to be absent or generally weak on the practical level considering the lack of supporting means, funding lines or strategic planning views which all together made many of these projects and ideas to operate in an unstructured and an unofficial manner, carrying out their potential to an unknown path.

Курдская проблема в современной политике Ирака, Сирии и Турции: опыт комплексного анализа

Currently, the Middle East is undergoing significant changes, often due to a mixture of global and regional factors. The study is devoted to the current policies in the Middle East, in the ethnogeographic area of Kurdistan. The study researches numerous parties (political entities) of the Kurds of Iraq, Syria and Turkey, considers the events that took place in Kurdistan in 2022 and 2023. The central government of Iraq receives new levers of pressure on the leadership of the Kurdish Autonomy. At the same time, the Turkish leadership refuses to resume oil exports. Although the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pursues its own goals, in this case the actions of Ankara and Baghdad coincide. Relations between the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan remain tense on a number of issues. During the adoption of the budget law, the latter actually opposed the idea of Kurdish autonomy in Iraq. In Syria, the autonomy of the Kurds (Rojava) will exist as long as the United States maintains its presence. The Syrian government is promoting the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Syria as a precondition for restoring relations with Ankara. Turkey refuses, because the Syrian Democratic Forces are not controlled by the Damascus. Thus, the Syrian Kurds are the stumbling block of the post-war settlement in Syria. In Turkey, there is a split between the opposition and pro-government Kurds. The opposition is divided into legal and illegal. Because the government of R. T. Erdoğan won a landslide victory in the presidential elections, there is no reason to believe that a softer course will be adopted against the Turkish Kurds.

Long-term physical and psychological symptoms in Syrian men subjected to detention, conflict-related sexual violence and torture: cohort study of self-reported symptom evolution

Since March 2011, more than 1 million people, mostly men, have been arrested, detained, and tortured by the Assad regime. Published literature does not reflect the evolution of symptoms after male sexual and physical violence in detention. This cohort study examines the constellation and evolution of self-reported symptoms after male conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in Syrian state detention. Sexual, psychological, and physical symptoms and conditions experienced by a cohort of 106 male detainees after CRSV in Syrian regime detention were evaluated over a ten-year period (2012-2022). Men sought forensic medical expert evaluations (FMEs) to document torture and later consented to semi-structured interviews (SSIs), a median of 8.8 years after their detention. A standard data collection tool was used to assess symptoms and conditions during FMEs (Time 3), and at the time of the SSI (Time 4), during which men also reported symptoms experienced during detention (Time 1) and after detention release (Time 2). 30.2% of men spent more than 1 year in detention and 9.4% were detained >5 years. 90% reported being slapped, punched, kicked, hit with objects, 60.4% of men reported torture with multiple devices, and 48.1% reported being burned or electrocuted. Multiple sexual violence types were reported during detention: 97.2% forced nudity, 45.3% violence to genitals or anus, 30.2% collective sexual humiliation, and 9.4% rape. Men recalled nearly universal presence of acute pain, bleeding wounds, skin infections, sleep disturbances, fear, sadness, anxiety, and despair during detention. By Time 4, acute physical and psychological conditions were fading or absent, while scars, avoidance, intrusive memories, lack of trust, self-isolation, chronic pain, anger, and low self-esteem were reported by≥50%. The most persistently reported symptoms following detention through the SSI included scars, pain, intrusive memories, and avoidance in ≥50% of men. At the SSI, 26.4% of men reported erectile dysfunction and 23.6% challenges with sexual relations. Men reported persistent symptoms and conditions years after CRSV, torture and detention. The unique constellation of findings and their evolution in male CRSV survivors, particularly increasing rates of anger, distrust, and self-isolation, must urgently inform design and delivery of support services and health care. This study was funded by the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and the Arts and Humanities Research Council through the project 'Understanding and Addressing the Impact of Invisibility on Conflict-Related Male Sexual Violence in Syria'.

The role of the Israeli-Syrian mixed armistice commission in the fate of the Arabs of Krad al-Baqqara and Krad al-Ghaname 1948-1956

ABSTRACT The 1949 Israeli-Syrian armistice agreement stipulated the establishment of a mixed armistice commission [MAC] to oversee the implementation of the terms of the agreement. One of the outcomes of this agreement was the creation of demilitarized zones inhabited by local Arab villagers. During Israel’s War of Independence, the residents of Krad al-Baqqara and Krad al-Ghaname fled to Syria; the agreement enabled them to return to their lands in the demilitarized zone. Two years later, Israel moved them out of the demilitarized zone, but then allowed them once again to return. During the 1956 Sinai War most left the zone or were forced to leave for Syria. The legal status of the demilitarized zone meant that unlike the residents of other Arab cities and villages in Israel, these villagers were not under military rule, and that UN observers could intervene in their affairs. Unexplored documents paint a complex picture of the different interests and involvement of the IDF (which oversaw the Israeli Delegation to the Mixed Armistice Commission), the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Syrian government, and the UN observers in their fate.