Syria Studies

This issue, vol 17 No 1, of Syria Studies bridges several periods, touching on multiple issues including frustrated reform in Bashar al-Asad’s first decade, Islamist rebellion, the flight of refugees from the country after 2011, and post-Asad prospects for reconstruction, taking tourism as a case study. In "Syria and the Abraham Path Initiative," Lesch and Ury explore the internal struggles in the Asad regime’s first decade, highlighting, in particular, the constraints on Asad from the covert resistance of the security forces to engagements with the West that could lead to concessions to Israel. Rawia at-Tawil’s study charts the expansion of Islamist armed groups and exposes how local legitimacy, service delivery, and relationships with communities shaped their  power trajectories, leading to the emergence of a moderate Islamic civil society having the potential to substitute for weak state authority. The paper by Raychaudhuri and Saha examines the journeys of Yusra Mardini and Hassan Akkad, who fled Syria’s civil war. It exposes the varying drivers that led refugees to flee and the different routes by which they rebuilt their lives. The contribution by Sukanta Sarkar surveys Syria’s potential to use its substantial tourism assets as a pathway to reconstruction.