Description
The uprising that started in Syria in early 2011 and the subsequent war brought about, among other topics, studies on sectarianism, various armed groups, and refugees. The failure of the peaceful uprising to bring about democracy have been used as a case for authoritarian adaptation and resilience. The military interventions of regional countries, notably of Saudi Arabia and Iran, have prompted new research on proxy wars. ISIS’ rise has inspired scholars of rebel governance to explain the organization’s brutal governance strategies and motives. While studies on the war abound, there are still aspect and topics left uncovered. This panel sheds light on these and takes a critical approach to the works published during the past decade. The papers discuss a wide range of topics beyond superficial and simple characterizations of the events. Instead of depicting the war merely as a sectarian conflict and treating identities as fixed, should the national identity be understood as a continual process of reconstruction? How is activists’ experiential knowledge of the revolution created in a context of violence and nonviolence? Further, how did these activists establish civil governance apart from rebels when violence increased and the uprising militarized? As the political process to end the war has not moved forward, how should we interpret the rewriting of the Syrian constitution?
