Syrian Requiem - by Itamar Rabinovich & Carmit Valensi (Paperback)

About the Book

"The Syrian crisis is not over yet but the period of full-fledged civil war in that country appears to be drawing to a close, and it is now possible to view this calamity with some perspective. This short book will address the following questions about the conflict: How and why did quiet demonstrations in Southern Syria develop into a brutal civil war? Why did the political opposition to the regime of Bashar al-Assad remain weak and divided? How did radical Jihadi Islamists take over the main military opposition to the Syrian regime? How did the Syrian conflict become a main arena of the Saudi-Iranian regional rivalry? What explains the ambivalent Western attitude towards the Syrian rebellion? How did US policy under the Obama administration evolve and why did both Obama and Trump decide not to make a major investment in it? How stable is the status quo? And how could the conflict re-erupt in a different form? According to Rabinovitch, the Syrian regime and its supporters (including the Russians and the Iranians) have indeed emerged as victors, but it's a limited victory at best. The Syrian state under Assad controls only about 60 percent of the national territory and the potential for renewed violence is considerable. Assad's continued survival has come at the cost of deep dependency on Iran and Russia; his is now, arguably, a vassal state. This means that the country will remain in crisis for the foreseeable future, even if the full-scale civil war phase has come to an end. In his last chapter, Rabinovich will recommend policy options for the U.S"--

Book Synopsis

A compact, incisive history of a war that was an ominous prelude to Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Leaving almost half a million dead and displacing an estimated twelve million people, the Syrian Civil War is a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale. Syrian Requiem analyzes the causes and course of this bitter conflict--from its first spark in a peaceful Arab Spring protest to the tenuous victory of the Asad dictatorship--and traces how the fighting has reduced Syria to a crisis-ridden vassal state with little prospect of political reform, national reconciliation, or economic reconstruction.

Israel's chief negotiator with Syria during the mid-1990s, Itamar Rabinovich brings unmatched expertise and insight to the politics of the Middle East. Drawing on more than two hundred specially conducted interviews with key players, Rabinovich and Carmit Valensi assess the roles of local, regional, and global interests in the war. Local sectarian divisions established the fault lines of the initial conflict, ultimately leading to the rise of the brutal Islamic State. However, Syria rapidly became the stage for proxy warfare between contending regional powers, including Israel, Turkey, and Iran. At the same time, while a war-weary United States attempted to reduce its military involvement in the Middle East, a resurgent Russia regained regional influence by supporting Syrian government forces. Telling the story of the war and its aftermath, Rabinovich and Valensi also examine the considerable potential for renewed conflict and the difficult policy choices facing the United States, Russia, and other powers.

A compact and incisive history of one of the defining wars of our times, Syrian Requiem is a vivid and timely account of a conflict that continues to reverberate today.

Review Quotes

"Packed with information, this slick book manages to offer a comprehensive look at the causes and immediate consequences of the civil war, and the way in which peaceful protests staged as part of the Arab Spring rapidly escalated into a civil war with important and far-reaching international ramifications. An engaging reading, Rabinovich and Valensi's argument will be of interest to academic and non-academic audiences as well as to undergraduate students and faculty alike."---Lavinia Stan, European Legacy

"Syrian Requiem is an original and valuable addition to the literature on the Syrian civil war, and is likely to become one of the early standard texts on this subject, specifically with regard to its cogent examination of the diplomatic, strategic, and high policy elements of the war's trajectory."---Jonathan Spyer, Tel Aviv Review of Books ​​​​​​​

"Syrian Requiem: The Civil War and Its Aftermath makes a bold claim in its very title. It rests on the idea that something fundamentally Syrian has slid into memory, never to return."---Lazar Berman, Times of Israel

"A smart history."---Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times

"A valuable book for students of geopolitics and the ever turbulent Middle East."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

"A very useful primer on an astonishingly complex history."-- "Foreign Affairs"

"Important and impressive. . . . [Syrian Requiem] is an indispensable book for anyone wishing to understand one of the most tragic civil wars in the Middle East."-- "Survival"

"Of all the books I've read about the ongoing civil war in Syria, Syrian Requiem: The Civil War and Its Aftermath is the best of the lot. . . . . It is concise yet comprehensive, scholarly yet accessible."---Sheldon Kirshner, Times of Israel

About the Author

Itamar Rabinovich is professor and president emeritus at Tel Aviv University and vice chair of the Institute of National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. He was Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's chief negotiator with Syria and is a former Israeli ambassador to the United States. His books include Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman and Waging Peace: Israel and the Arabs, 1948-2003 (Princeton). Twitter @ItamarRabinovi Carmit Valensi is a senior fellow and the director of the Syria research program at the Institute for National Security Studies. Twitter @CarmitValensi