Introduction
Civil uprising in Syria has become an international humanitarian crisis. Five years after the Syrian Arab Spring, armed conflict rages on without any indication of abatement. While a solution amenable to the conflicting parties is elusive, understanding the underlying causes and the consequences of the continuing conflict is important to determining a solution.
How did it begin?
Syria’s formation as a nation state created a volatile political environment. Syria has been governed by an authoritarian regime. Syria’s government from 1970 to 2000 was a dictatorship by Hafez al-Assad, from the Alawite minority sect. It was through the armed forces that government ...