State Atrophy in Syria

Harout Akdedian is program analyst at the Oregon Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Unit. He is a visiting scholar at Portland State University’s Middle East Studies Centre, and associate fellow at the Central European University’s Centre for Religious Studies. He holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of New England.

• Introduction: On Abolition, State Capture and Atrophy 1 State Capture and Devolution in Syria: A Paradoxical Landscape 2 Institutions of Violence and Proliferation 3 Ethno-Religious Subjectivities: Dynamics of Communitarianism and Sectarianisation 4 Institutional Ecologies During State Atrophy: The Religious Field as Case Study 5 Civilian Agency and Its Limits: Community Protection in Der Hafer and KasabConclusion: The Future of State–Society Relations Bibliography Index

It is gratifying to see how recent methodical reflections on contemporary Syria are bearing fruit, enriched by intensive research, and new analytical departures. Akdedian’s granular analysis of state capture, sectarianism, the multiform devolution of state power and authority, of the salience of locality and the virtual effacement of the private/public distinction in many domains, shows these to be dynamic processes with agency, novelty and considerable complexity. Having read this book, it would no longer be conscionable to spin stories of primordialism, nor tropes of return to an authentic past.