Description
Book SynopsisOra Szekely draws on sources including in-depth interviews, conflict data, and propaganda distributed through social media to examine how competing narratives of the civil war in Syria have shaped the course of the conflict.
Trade ReviewA wonderfully nuanced and insightful account of how struggles to dominate the fractured narrative landscape of Syria’s civil war have shaped the conduct of warring parties. As markers of how combatants define what they are fighting for and whom they are fighting against, conflicts to determine whose narratives prevail have played a crucial role in Syria’s civil war, both in understanding how violence becomes organized and in how the broader conflict is defined. A compelling case for the importance of conflict narratives, and conflicts over narratives, Szekely’s book is an important contribution to scholarship on the Syrian civil war and on civil war more broadly. It deserves to be widely read. -- Steven Heydemann, Janet Wright Ketcham 1953 Professor in Middle East Studies, Smith College
Szekely’s fine book combines keen analytical insight with a wealth of empirical information on the Syrian civil war. She brilliantly exposes how a war of incompatible narratives—fight for dignity, against terrorism, for an Islamic state—had material consequences for the power balance on the ground by affecting recruitment, financing, and outside intervention. -- Raymond Hinnebusch, codirector, Centre for Syrian Studies, University of St. Andrews
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Syrian Tragedy
2. What Are We Fighting For?
3. Patterns of Violence
4. The YouTube War
Conclusion
Appendix: Methods
Notes
Index
