Struggle for Power in Syria

Nikolaos van Dam is a specialist on Syria and has served as Ambassador of the Netherlands to Indonesia, Germany, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq.

• Preface Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: The rise of minorities in the Syrian armed forces and in the Ba'th PartyChapter 3: Sectarian polarisation in the Syrian armed forces between Sunnis and religious minoritiesChapter 4: The purge of Druze officers in the Syrian armed forcesChapter 5: The struggle for power within the Alawi communityChapter 6: Sectarian and regional factionalism in the Syrian political elite: a statistical analysisChapter 7: Sectarian provocation and confrontationChapter 8: Sectarian showdown: eradication of the Muslim BrotherhoodChapter 9: The power elite under Hafiz al-AsadChapter 10: ConclusionsChapter 11: Syrian Ba'thist memoirs

'[A] monumental work on Syrian power politics' - Robert Fisk, The Independent; 'An excellent book' - Patrick Seale; 'An admirable study - invaluable for anyone with a serious interest in Middle Eastern politics' - Peter Mansfield; 'The most informative explanation of the effects of sectarianism and regionalism on Syrian politics' - Philip S. Khoury, MERIP Reports; '[An] excellent study of the sectarian bases of Syrian politics' - Foreign Affairs; 'Only a handful of important books have been written on modern Syria; and Nikolaos van Dam's The Struggle for Power in Syria is one of them' - Joshua Landis, International Journal of Middle East Studies