The Levant in Turmoil

"This excellent volume brings together a multiplicity of experts offering diverse perspectives on the crisis which has engulfed the Levant in the post-2011 period. The Syrian civil war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are meticulously examined and placed in their regional and international contexts. Contemporary developments are analysed in light of their historical antecedents and sectarianism interpreted within its proper political and socio-economic framework. The book offers an informative and measured assessment of the current political transformations of the state system in the Levant and the broader Middle East region and will make a distinct contribution to debate among specialists and the general public alike." - Katerina Dalacoura, Associate Professor in International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK "[This book], edited and written by a group of prominent Middle East experts, is an outstanding contribution to the still very small market of serious and meaningful publications on current developments in Syria and the Levant. Although scholarly in style and content, I am sure that it will also attract a much broader non-academic audience." - Henner Furtig, Director, GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies, Hamburg, Germany

Since the early weeks of the so-called Arab Spring, high hopes for democratic, social, and political change in the Middle East have been met with varying degrees of frustration.Since the early weeks of the so-called Arab Spring, high hopes for democratic, social, and political change in the Middle East have been met with varying degrees of frustration. In the sub-region of the Levant, regional uprisings have turned to violent conflict in places such as Syria, Iraq, and the Gaza Strip. In Syria, popular unrest has caused enormous human suffering in one of the most brutal civil wars the region ever has witnessed, yet the international community has shown an appalling inability to act. Taking the war in Syria as its central point of reference, this book raises the question of whether the developments in the Levant might lead not only to processes of regime change, but also to a fundamental alteration of its entire state system.