Syrian Studies through the lens of Strategic Studies
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Abstract
This reflective essay examines the intellectual, methodological, and ethical challenges of conducting military-focused research on Syria during and after the Arab Spring. Drawing from personal experience and scholarly inquiry, the piece interrogates how authoritarian secrecy, conflict-driven instability, and the opacity of military institutions profoundly shaped the trajectory of the author’s research over nearly a decade. What began as a comparative analysis of military behavior in Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia evolved into a deeper engagement with interdisciplinary methods and virtual ethnography, necessitated by restricted access to primary sources, fieldwork, and firsthand testimony. The paper traces the evolution of the author’s research questions, theoretical frameworks, and methodological adaptations in response to censorship, propaganda, and political risk. It also introduces the concept of the efficient military—an alternative to Huntington’s professional model—emerging from these constraints. Ultimately, the essay contributes to Syrian Studies by foregrounding the complexities of knowledge production under authoritarianism and the critical need for reflexivity, creativity, and resilience in researching institutions of power in closed regimes
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