Revolution in Syria

How does protest advancing diverse claims turn into violent conflict occurring primarily along ethnic lines? This book examines that question in the context of Syria, drawing insight from the evolution of conflict at the local level. Kevin Mazur shows that the challenge to the Syrian regime did not erupt neatly along ethnic boundaries, and that lines of access to state-controlled resources played a critical structuring role; the ethnicization of conflict resulted from failed incumbent efforts to shore up network ties and the violence that the Asad regime used to crush dissent by challengers excluded from those networks. Mazur uses variation in the political and demographic characteristics of locales to explain regime strategies, the roles played by local intermediaries, the choice between non-violent and violent resistance, and the salience of ethnicity. By drawing attention to cross-ethnic ties, the book suggests new strategies for understanding ostensibly ethnic conflicts beyond Syria.

'Mazur's Revolution in Syria is an impressive achievement. Uncommonly erudite and lucid, the book uses both quantitative and qualitative data to produce a nuanced account of the ethnicization of conflict. Focusing in large part on networks, the book offers a corrective to conventional political science accounts that reduce politics to material interests and narrowly conceived calculations. Revolution in Syria will surely generate debate and fruitful arguments among scholars of Syrian politics, but it will also be of value to ongoing conversations in the social sciences more generally-contributing to prevailing literatures on identity formation, network theory, civil war, ethnic conflict, and the vexed issue of sectarianism. Mazur's intellect, clear writing, and attention to processes of social attachment also lend the book a welcome vitality, recommending it to any scholar interested in employing multi-method research or navigating the tensions between quantitative and qualitative approaches to knowledge production.' Lisa Wedeen, The University of Chicago, 'Kevin Mazur's Revolution in Syria is by far the most sophisticated and compelling work to date on the origins and the first phases of the Syrian conflict. It thoroughly follows through predominant hunches, while debunking others, about how and why an initially peaceful uprising calling for the end of a brutal authoritarian regime turned into a vicious sectarian civil war.' Reinoud Leenders, King's College London, 'Revolution in Syria shows beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Syrian conflict was not “ethnic” in its origin but rather took on this appearance over time. Mazur's painstaking description of the evolving interactions between challengers and the incumbent regime in Syria contributes richly to studies of 'ethnic violence' by tracing exactly how ethnicization occurred. The author's deep attention to the varied local dynamics of contestation across the country and his profound knowledge of the case make the book a must-read for anyone interested in Syria, the Middle East, and ethnic politics more generally.' Melani Cammett, Harvard University

Kevin Mazur is Future of Conflict Fellow in the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project at Princeton University. He was previously a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford and has conducted extensive fieldwork in the Arab world.