Coup in Damascus - by Carl Rihan (Hardcover)

About the Book

Coup in Damascus explores Syria's 1949 military coup by focusing on cost-driven political action. Rihan affirms that flawed monetary policies, disrupted trade, and recurrent economic interventionism led to the rise of authoritarianism, thereby offering a fresh interdisciplinary perspective on Middle Eastern history.

Book Synopsis

Coup in Damascus examines the military takeover of Syria in 1949, an event which precipitated the rise of authoritarianism across the region. Connecting economics, politics and history, it challenges traditional interpretations grounded in international relations by shifting the focus away from geopolitics and postcolonial studies, affirming instead the primacy of cost-calculating, utility driven political action. By bringing neoclassical and Austrian economics into contact with Middle East history, Coup in Damascus demonstrates how unsound monetary practices, the disruption of trade routes and excessive interventionism upset social and institutional equilibriums thereby leading to authoritarianism. Coup in Damascus also highlights how lingering tensions, or spillover costs, normally resolved through economic and political exchange, congested political systems thereby triggering violence and recurrence.

From the Back Cover

Coup in Damascus delves into one of the most pivotal yet under-explored moments in Middle Eastern history: the 1949 military coup in Syria, an event which set the stage for revolving door governments and autocracies across the region.
At the interdisciplinary crossroad between economics, politics, and history, Carl Rihan challenges prevailing narratives that have either focused on Great Power Politics, cloak-and-dagger regional rivalries, or postcolonial dynamics by affirming the central role of cost-calculating, utility-driven political action in a constrained economic context. Bringing neoclassical and Austrian economic thought in contact with Middle East history, the book uncovers how unsound monetary practices, the disruption of historical trade routes, flawed interventionism, and the waning of market dynamics paved the way for military takeovers, political radicalization, and zero-sum games.
By reaffirming the centrality of human action in its objective and praxeological sense, Coup in Damascus offers a fresh perspective on one of the region's most pivotal moments, one which still bares its bitter fruits today. It provides a timely analysis in light of the recent civil war and violence in the region and seeks to "write history differently" by re-imagining the past.

About the Author

Carl Rihan is a political economist specialized in decision-making and economic policy in fragile settings. An associate at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Carl models decision-making under conditions of economic uncertainty by applying cost-based and game-theoretic frameworks onto historical data. With more than a decade of experience covering twenty-two Arab States and Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations (FCS), he advises on stabilization and organizational strategy by combining data analytics and qualitative methods. Carl teaches at SciencesPo Paris, SciencesPo Lille, and is also the co-author of Governance Cooperation in a Conflict-Ridden Context (IIAS, 2024).