Syrian Requiem: The Civil War and Its Aftermath

by Itamar Rabinovich, Carmit Valensi

Overview

A compact, incisive history of a war that was an ominous prelude to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Leaving almost half a million dead and displacing an estimated twelve million people, the Syrian Civil War is a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale. Syrian Requiem analyzes the causes and course of this bitter conflict—from its first spark in a peaceful Arab Spring protest to the tenuous victory of the Asad dictatorship—and traces how the fighting has reduced Syria to a crisis-ridden vassal state with little prospect of political reform, national reconciliation, or economic reconstruction.

Israel’s chief negotiator with Syria during the mid-1990s, Itamar Rabinovich brings unmatched expertise and insight to the politics of the Middle East. Drawing on more than two hundred specially conducted interviews with key players, Rabinovich and Carmit Valensi assess the roles of local, regional, and global interests in the war. Local sectarian divisions established the fault lines of the initial conflict, ultimately leading to the rise of the brutal Islamic State. However, Syria rapidly became the stage for proxy warfare between contending regional powers, including Israel, Turkey, and Iran. At the same time, while a war-weary United States attempted to reduce its military involvement in the Middle East, a resurgent Russia regained regional influence by supporting Syrian government forces. Telling the story of the war and its aftermath, Rabinovich and Valensi also examine the considerable potential for renewed conflict and the difficult policy choices facing the United States, Russia, and other powers.

A compact and incisive history of one of the defining wars of our times, Syrian Requiem is a vivid and timely account of a conflict that continues to reverberate today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691212616
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	02/16/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Itamar Rabinovich is professor and president emeritus at Tel Aviv University and vice chair of the Institute of National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. He was Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s chief negotiator with Syria and is a former Israeli ambassador to the United States. His books include Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman and Waging Peace: Israel and the Arabs, 1948–2003 (Princeton). Twitter @ItamarRabinovi Carmit Valensi is a senior fellow and the director of the Syria research program at the Institute for National Security Studies. Twitter @CarmitValensi

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Chapter 1 The Ba'th in Power, 1963-2011 1

Chapter 2 The Syrian Civil War and Crisis, 2011-18 41

Chapter 3 The Domestic Scene 77

Chapter 4 The Regional Arena 121

Chapter 5 International Actors 157

Chapter 6 Syria 2019-20 195

Conclusion. From the Syrian Civil War to the Lingering Syrian Crisis 229

Notes 237

Selected Bibliography 251

Index 257

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is an illuminating book, combining a rich narrative and a profound analysis of Syrian history and politics from the country’s early days to the present crisis.”—Tzipi Livni, former Foreign Minister of Israel

“The Syrian Civil War is one of the tragedies of our age. Syrian Requiem offers a masterful introduction to this complex topic.”—Henry Kissinger

"In the modern era, there have been few greater national humanitarian catastrophes than Syria. Few observers of the situation in Syria are better qualified to dissect the causes and recommend the potential solutions than Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich. His rich experience as a diplomat and his sustained scholarship of the region make this book a must-read."—John R. Allen, President, Brookings Institution, retired U.S. Marine Corps general, and former Special Presidential Envoy, Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State

“An excellent and important book, Syrian Requiem places the mass murder and unspeakable brutality of the Syrian Civil War in historical and political context, illuminating the causes of the conflict and the daunting obstacles to a new beginning for those who have suffered at the hands of the Asad regime and its sponsors. This comprehensive and insightful book should be foundational to all efforts to imagine a path to peace.”—H. R. McMaster, former U.S. National Security Advisor, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, and author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World

“An important contribution to our understanding of the Syrian Civil War, Syrian Requiem finds the right balance between serious scholarship and readability for a broader audience.”—Frederic C. Hof, Bard College

“Syrian Requiem provides an excellent overview and analysis of the factors that have shaped the war in Syria, as well as the deeper historical forces that have produced an outcome of destruction and incalculable human loss.”—Seth Anziska, University College London

“Combining crisp prose and clear analysis, this is a comprehensive and highly readable account of the Syrian Civil War. It is critical and at times unsparing, but also very balanced.”—Daniel Byman, Georgetown University

Editorial Reviews

"A smart history."—-Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times

From the Publisher

"A very useful primer on an astonishingly complex history."

Foreign Affairs

"Important and impressive. . . . [Syrian Requiem] is an indispensable book for anyone wishing to understand one of the most tragic civil wars in the Middle East."

Survival

2020-12-15
Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Rabinovich and national-security expert Valensi home in on the intractable problem of a Syria mired in civil war.

“Authoritative figures of the casualties…are unavailable,” write the authors, “but most sources agree that by the middle of 2019, close to half a million people had died in Syria, and close to 12 million Syrians had become refugees or…internally displaced persons.” In their cogent analysis, the authors trace the nation’s internal conflict to the early 1960s, when the Ba’th Party assumed rule. Crippled from the start by former colonizer France’s “divide and rule” strategy of drawing on minority populations to staff the military, the Ba’th Party was founded by “two Damascene intellectuals” whose program “offered a secular vision of Arab nationalism combined with a social democratic ideology.” This naturally put the regime athwart of the growing insurgent movement in recent years, but it also hampered the growth of the private sector. As of 2008, the authors write, even with a growing GNP, “almost 70 percent of Syrian employees earned less than one hundred dollars a month.” A decade ago, conditions were ripe for the civil war that followed, which featured proxy elements, the U.S. supporting rebels, Russia and Iran supporting the government. By 2014, the country had suffered a vast brain drain as its artists and intellectuals fled. The government, meanwhile, suffered a blow with the assassination of Iranian general and strategist Qasem Soleimani, killed by an American drone in January 2020. Yet American policy in the country, the authors rightly note, has been inconsistent thanks to Donald Trump’s “persistent desire to disengage from Syria.” This has favored the existing government and changed the face of the region’s political makeup, “shaped by the new roles of Iran and Turkey, and by America’s withdrawal and Russia’s resurgence.”

A valuable book for students of geopolitics and the ever turbulent Middle East.

Kirkus Reviews