Syrian Requiem: The Civil War and Its Aftermath

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A compact, incisive history of one of the defining conflicts of our time

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 Requiemanalyses 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 no 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.

Reviews

"A smart history."---Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times
"A very useful primer on an astonishingly complex history." * Foreign Affairs *
"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
"Of all the books Ive 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
"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 wars trajectory."---Jonathan Spyer, Tel Aviv Review of Books
"A valuable book for students of geopolitics and the ever turbulent Middle East." * Kirkus Reviews *
"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 *

Author Bio

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 Rabins 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, 19482003 (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