Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria

150 Pages·2017·1.44 MB·English

NIKOLAOS VAN DAM is a specialist on Syria who served as Dutch Special
Envoy for Syria in 2015–16. He has previously served as Ambassador of the
Netherlands to Indonesia, Germany, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq. He is the author of
The Struggle for Power in Syria: Politics and Society under Asad and the Ba’th
Party (I.B.Tauris, 2011).
‘This book is indispensable to understand the depth of the Syrian crisis. It
plunges into history and decrypts the sectarian functioning of Syrian society and
power. All those who look at the future of Syria must read Nikolaos van Dam’s
book before making new decisions that would lead to more chaos.’
Fabrice Balanche, Associate Professor and Research
Director at the University of Lyon 2
‘This is the best book on the Syrian Civil War, hands down. Nikolaos van Dam
has been steeped in Syrian history and politics for decades as a diplomat and
historian. He has read everything on Syria in numerous languages. He is both
wise and balanced. Whether you want an accessible introduction to the regional
conflict or to deepen your knowledge of Syria, Destroying a Nation is a must-
read by a true scholar.’
Joshua Landis, Director of the Center for Middle
East Studies, University of Oklahoma
‘Nikolaos van Dam is simply one of the top experts on Syria. Setting the Syrian
conflict within its historical and contemporary contexts, he draws on his unique
combination of scholarly excellence and practical diplomatic experience. This
book is a sophisticated yet accessible and readable analysis of a highly complex
situation. It substantially updates and advances our understanding of the ever-
evolving war in Syria.’
David W. Lesch, Ewing Halsell Distinguished Professor of History at
Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas and author of Syria: The Fall of the
House of Assad
‘Nikolaos van Dam is one of the finest Syriatologists of all time. His seminal
book, The Struggle for Power in Syria, is a must-read for anybody wanting to
understand the modern history of Syria after the Ba’th coup of 1963. His new
book will be an overnight classic as well, analysing Syrian politics and the
present conflict not through regional dynamics of the Arab–Israeli conflict, or
through anything related to Syrian–US or Syrian–Russian relations, but rather
through the narrow prism of Syrian domestic politics. Exploring issues often
overlooked by Syria scholars, it focuses on sect, class, history and geography to
explain events of both today and tomorrow.’
Sami Moubayed, author of Under the Black Flag: An Exclusive Insight into
the Inner Workings of ISIS
(I.B.Tauris, 2015)
‘Nikolaos van Dam is a rare species: an academic analyst and an excellent
diplomat who has accompanied and shaped recent Syrian history in theory and
practice. He is also brutally honest, including with Western policy failures, and
hard to put into a political camp in this polarised conflict. On the basis of
profound studies of the Ba’th system, he explains how Syria’s disaster inevitably
unfolded in the context of the Arab Spring, the brutal internal logic of an
encrusted regime, and the vested interests of foreign powers. Van Dam’s insights
from old and new Syria make this book a valuable guide in the complex web of
this worst conflict of our century. We get a taste of the difficult search for a new
social contract and a political solution in Syria – if this is still possible before the
state fails.’
Carsten Wieland, author of Syria:
A Decade of Lost Chances

Published in 2017 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London • New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright © 2017 Nikolaos van Dam
The right of Nikolaos van Dam to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
publisher.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
ISBN: 978 1 78453 797 5
eISBN: 978 1 78672 248 5
ePDF: 978 1 78673 248 4
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Cover image: A Syrian man carries a baby in the Maadi district of eastern Aleppo after regime aircrafts
reportedly dropped explosive-packed barrel bombs on 27 August 2016.
(Photo: AMEER ALHALBI/AFP/Getty Images)
Typeset by Riverside Publishing Solutions
To Marinka
CONTENTS
PREFACE
MAP OF SYRIA
Introduction
1 A Synopsis of Ba’thist history before the Syrian Revolution (2011)
2 Could the war in Syria have been avoided?
3 Confrontation between the military of the regime and the opposition
4 The ambivalent Western approach to the Syria conflict
5 Intra-Syrian talks but no negotiations
Conclusions
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF MOVEMENTS AND FACTIONS
PREFACE
When I first visited Syria in 1964, more than half a century ago, I was free to
travel almost anywhere I wanted. In the fascinating suqs of Aleppo, I had an
unexpected encounter with a Syrian student from a picturesque nearby rural
village who invited me to stay overnight to be his guest under the open summer
sky, next to his traditional beehive mud-brick house. Inside the mud-brick
cupola it was too hot to sleep comfortably, but it was a different kind of comfort
that I grew accustomed to. In his tiny rural village, I, for the first time, enjoyed
the great hospitality of a Syrian family.
What struck me most during my frequent visits to Syria over the years was the
kindness and great hospitality of the Syrian people, wherever I went. I got to
know the Syrians as friendly and charming, open-minded and tolerant, and
respectful heirs of rich civilisations. I enjoyed the fascinating historical cities of
Aleppo and Damascus, with their industrious people, the smells of oriental
spices and the busy sounds of market life; the ingenious architectural splendour
of beautifully decorated palaces and traditional houses, with their treasures
surprisingly hidden behind anonymous walls; all this next to the cosmopolitan
buzz of the modern city quarters, where people remained attached to their
valuable traditions. The soft-spoken Syrian Arabic sounded like harmonious
music to my ears. I visited the fertile Alawi Mountains near the Mediterranean
coast with their strategically located Crusader and Assassin castles; the city of
Hama with its elegant Azm Palace and its chirping large water wheels (norias)
from which enthusiastic children jumped from high up, plunging joyfully into
the Orontes river; and the various museums with their spectacular mosaics made
by Syrians in Roman times. I travelled across the occasionally blooming deserts
with their impressive ancient Umayyad castles and cities like Palmyra, justly
called ‘the pearl of the desert’. There is hardly any place in Syria I did not visit.
The beautiful picture that once existed has now been destroyed to such an
extent that Syria can never be the same again. In 2010, just before the start of the
Syrian Revolution, Syria still seemed to be a quiet and peaceful country. What
was less visible on the surface then – although it was well known – was that
Syria had been ruled for almost half a century by the same Ba’thist dictatorship,
which severely suppressed those people who did not accept its views or opposed
it.
Many of the beautiful places I visited in the past now conjure up images of
fierce battles and bloody war; of a country buried to a large extent under a pile of