Syria Divided: Patterns of Violence in a Complex Civil War

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Syrian Tragedy -- What Are We Fighting For? -- Patterns of Violence -- The YouTube War -- Conclusion.

"The Syrian civil war, now in its ninth year, has thus far taken the lives of more than half a million Syrians and displaced over half of the country's population. Like many civil wars, it involves an ever-changing constellation of factions, each with its own narrative as to what the war is actually about: For some, it is a fight to reclaim their karameh, or dignity, from a regime that has stolen it. For others, it is about preserving Syrian stability against threats from those who would seek to weaken the state. For still others it is an opportunity to redress sectarian or ethnic inequalities, or to establish entirely new states based on their own ideological projects. In this book, Ora Szekely draws on media analysis and interviews with Syrian politicians, activists, and civilians to understand the different narratives at work in the Syrian civil war. Her data shows that the battle is fought distinctively and, in many quarters, exclusively, through rhetoric. This and other performative discourses are meant to capture international attention, feeding new angles of the conflict that had hitherto never existed"-- Provided by publisher.