Syria

US: Polity, 2017. Paperback. Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Syria was once one of the Middle Easts most stable states. Today it is a co untry on its knees. Almost 200,000 people are estimated to have died in its bloody internal conflict and, as the violence intensifies, Syrias future l ooks bleak. In this timely book, Samer Abboud provides an in-depth analysis of Syrias d escent into civil war. He unravels the complex and multi-layered causes of the current political and military stalemate - from rebel fragmentation to the differing roles of international actors, and the rise of competing cent ers of power throughout the country. Rebel in-fighting and the lack of a ce ntralizing authority, he contends, have exacerbated Syrias fragmentation an d fragility. This, in turn, has aided the survival of the Assad regime, con tributed to the upsurge of sectarianism, and led to a major humanitarian cr isis as nine million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes. A resolution to the Syrian conflict seems unlikely in the short-term as the major actors remains committed to a military solution. As this situation persists, the continued fighting is reshaping Syrias borders and will have repercussions on the wider Middle East for decades to come.