Publication

This paper examines how President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has managed to maintain control over government institutions since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War. Basically, the regime has sustained itself by 1) enhancing its links with those institutions that provide essential goods and services; 2) consolidating the country’s bureaucratic system in highly defensible urban centers that are under the regime’s control; and 3) promoting a narrative that claims the Assad government is the only services provider that Syrians can reasonably rely on. The paper’s author concludes his analysis by explaining what external actors can do to undermine Assad’s hold on Syrian institutions, and thereby enhance the possibility of a political settlement to the conflict.