Civil War in Syria: Mobilization and Competing Social Orders (Problems of International Politics)
Cambridge University Press, 2/8/2018
EAN 9781108420808, ISBN10: 110842080X
Hardcover, 346 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
In 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians marched peacefully to demand democratic reforms. Within months, repression forced them to take arms and set up their own institutions. Two years later, the inclusive nature of the opposition had collapsed, and the PKK and radical jihadist groups rose to prominence. In just a few years, Syria turned into a full-scale civil war involving major regional and world powers. How has the war affected Syrian society? How does the fragmentation of Syria transform social and sectarian hierarchies? How does the war economy work in a country divided between the regime, the insurgency, the PKK and the Islamic State? Written by authors who have previously worked on the Iraqi, Afghan, Kurd, Libyan and Congolese armed conflicts, it includes extensive interviews and direct observations. A unique book, which combines rare field experience of the Syrian conflict with new theoretical insights on the dynamics of civil wars.
Prolegomena
for a sociological approach to civil wars
Introduction
Part I. Genesis of a Revolution
1. The al-Assad system
2. A revolution of anonyms
3. The path to civil war
Part II. Revolutionary Institutions
4. The building of military capital
5. Administering the revolution
6. Mobilization outside Syria
Part III. The Fragmentation of the Iinsurrection
7. The crisis internationalizes
8. The Kurds and the PKK
9. The Islamization of the insurgency
10. The caliphate
Part IV. A Society at War
11. The variations of social capital
12. The economy for war
13. New identity regimes
Conclusion.