Betrayal of the homeland : disloyal subjects in wartime Syria /
"This book asks how the Syrian regime has managed conflict in the country since the outbreak of protests in 2011 and the subsequent civil war that has engulfed Syria ever since. Drawing on literature on authoritarian conflict management, illiberal state-building, and state repression in the Mid...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York, NY :
Columbia University Press,
2026.
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| Series: | Columbia studies in Middle East politics
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "This book asks how the Syrian regime has managed conflict in the country since the outbreak of protests in 2011 and the subsequent civil war that has engulfed Syria ever since. Drawing on literature on authoritarian conflict management, illiberal state-building, and state repression in the Middle East, this book argues that the Syrian regime has managed the conflict through a set of policy decisions that bifurcate society into the loyal and disloyal and which enact violence, enmity, and punishment against the latter. These policy decisions are rooted in discourses of treason, disloyalty, and abandonment that underpin legal and political structures that punish segments of the Syrian population deemed disloyal. The absorption of war's logic into the state has produced three principal mechanisms underpinning its approach to conflict management: a reconciliation process that tries to transform former fighters from enemies into friends; new legal regimes that punish absentee/unsettled citizens; and a settlement process that functions as a loyalty test for displaced Syrians to return to the country. This book shows how these three mechanisms have materialized in the context of the Syrian war and the implications for how these forms of conflict management shape post-conflict illiberal state-building"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Physical Description: | 264 pages ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780231215329 0231215320 9780231215336 0231215339 |