This timely study examines the forces at play in one of the world's most explosive nations, helping readers understand why Syria's popular uprising has been the most violent and hard-fought in the Middle East. In this insightful work, a noted expert goes behind the headlines to examine the complexities of Syrian politics and their impact on the modern world. Beginning with an overview of political and economic change after 1963 when the Ba'th Party came to power, the book focuses on developments in Syria since Bashar al-Assad assumed the presidency in 2000. It probes the evolution of the Islamist opposition and the course of the popular uprising that broke out in 2011 and explores Syria's multilayered relations with Israel, Turkey, Iran, Russia, and the United States. Readers will learn why rebellion in Syria has taken a much different path than movements that overturned autocratic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen. They will also come away with a more nuanced understanding of the pivotal role Syria plays in both the Arab-Israeli conflict and inter-Arab relations, as well as the confluence of domestic challenges and foreign threats that make Syria the most vulnerable state in the contemporary Middle East.

This study provides an overview of trends on Bahrain islands and of the social and historical context from which they have emerged. It is intended as an introduction to Bahraini affairs for the general reader and thus makes use of the existing literature wherever possible.

"Lawson's book salvages the study of the inter-Arab political system from the Middle Eastern ghetto to which it has often been relegated and reintegrates it into a global framework. This work not only strikes another blow against the notion of Middle East exceptionalism, it does so within an interdisciplinary framework that should appeal to both political scientists and historians."--James L. Gelvin, University of California, Los Angeles
"Students of international politics generally throw up their hands at 'exotic' regions like the Middle East. Lawson's fine treatment reveals that standard explanations for the emergence of the state system there are too simple but that the puzzle will yield to careful theorizing and meticulous research. He shows that areas outside of Europe and the United States need not be off-limits to social science, but do need to be approached with deep understanding of the histories and societies involved."--Robert Jervis, Columbia University

Countries at the Crossroads is an annual survey of government performance in 30 key countries worldwide that are at a critical crossroads in determining their political future. Crossroads provides a unique comparative tool for assessing government performance in the areas of accountability and public voice, civil liberties, rule of law, and anticorruption and transparency. The countries evaluated in Crossroads represent a range of governments: traditional or constitutional monarchies, one-party states or outright dictatorships, failed states, states where reforms have stalled or lagged behind, and states that suffer from insurgencies. The survey provides a comparative, in-depth assessment of democratic governance intended to help government officials, scholars, educators, nongovernmental organizations, and the media identify areas of progress and highlight points of concern. For the international community, the survey helps target diplomatic efforts and reform assistance. The narratives and scores clearly highlight the problems and successes of each government, and separate recommendations sections prioritize the steps that should be taken by the countries in question to remedy deficiencies in governance.

Regionalism has regained momentum in the post-Cold War era. New economic groupings continue to spring up across the globe, while older regional organizations have strengthened their institutional bases and broadened their scope. Explaining the reinvigoration of regionalism requires comparative analyses that not only highlight the commonalities that characterize various regional experiments but also account for the differential outcomes and divergent trajectories such projects exhibit. This collection of seminal articles on regionalism advances theoretical concepts that can stimulate useful comparisons, along with scholarly surveys of important instances of regionalism in the contemporary world. Besides classic studies of the European Union, the volume includes authoritative overviews and case studies of regionalist projects in East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Central Eurasia. An introductory essay situates these articles in the context of the five decade-long research program on regional integration theory.

Following the popular uprisings that swept across the Arab world beginning in 2010, armed forces remained pivotal actors in politics throughout the region. As demonstrators started to challenge entrenched autocratic rulers in Tunis, Cairo, Sana'a, and Manama, the militaries stormed back into the limelight and largely determined whether any given ruler survived the protests. In Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, senior officers pulled away from their presidents, while in Algeria, Bahrain, and Syria, they did not. More important, military officers took command in shaping the new order and conflict trajectories throughout that region. Armies and Insurgencies in the Arab Spring explores the central problems surrounding the role of armed forces in the contemporary Arab world. How and why do military apparatuses actively intervene in politics? What explains the fact that in some countries, military officers and rank-and-file take steps to defend an incumbent, while in others they defect and refrain from suppressing popular protest? What are the institutional legacies of the military's engagement during, and in the immediate aftermath of, mass uprisings? Focusing on these questions, editors Holger Albrecht, Aurel Croissant, and Fred H. Lawson have organized Armies and Insurgencies in the Arab Spring into three sections. The first employs case studies to make comparisons within and between regions; the second examines military engagements in the Arab uprisings in Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria; and the third looks at political developments following the cresting of the protest wave in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and the Gulf. The collection promotes better understanding not only of the particular history of military engagement in the Arab Spring but also of significant aspects of the transformation of political-military relations in other regions of the contemporary world. Contributors: Holger Albrecht, Risa A. Brooks, Cherine Chams El-Dine, Virginie Collombier, Aurel Croissant, Philippe Droz-Vincent, Kevin Koehler, Fred H. Lawson, Shana Marshall, Dorothy Ohl, David Pion-Berlin, Tobias Selge, Robert Springborg.

Rejecting conventional explanations for Syrian foreign policy, which emphasize the personalities and attitudes of leaders, cultural factors peculiar to Arab societies, or the machinations of the great powers, Fred H. Lawson describes key shifts in Damascus's response to regional adversaries in terms of changes in the intensity of political struggles at home. Periodic eruptions of domestic conflict have inspired Syria's ruling coalition to adopt a wide range of programs designed to buy off domestic rivals and perpetuate the predominance of individual coalition members. These programs have undermined the unity of the Ba'thi regime, increasing the chances that opponents will overturn the established order. Challenges to the Ba'thi regime become most threatening whenever crises of accumulation shake the domestic political economy, Lawson contends. Opposition forces gain strength when the state cannot sustain new investment or when competition increases between public and private enterprises. Political and economic trends inside Syria have determined why Damascus has since 1963 alternately escalated tensions with regional rivals and adopted more accommodating postures. Lawson traces this dynamic through five major episodes: the 1967 war with Israel; limited intervention in Jordan in 1970; the widening conflict in Lebanon in 1976; the defusing of conflict with Iraq in 1982; and the rapprochement with Turkey over Kurdish separatism in 1994. These patterns, Lawson suggests, may be characteristic of nations changing from one domestic economic system to a radically different one, as Syria has in the transition from state socialism to a privatized political economy.

Countries at the Crossroads is an annual survey of government performance in 30 key countries worldwide that are at a critical crossroads in determining their political future. Crossroads provides a unique comparative tool for assessing government performance in the areas of accountability and public voice, civil liberties, rule of law, and anticorruption and transparency. The countries evaluated in Crossroads represent a range of governments: traditional or constitutional monarchies, one-party states or outright dictatorships, failed states, states where reforms have stalled or lagged behind, and states that suffer from insurgencies. The survey provides a comparative, in-depth assessment of democratic governance intended to help government officials, scholars, educators, nongovernmental organizations, and the media identify areas of progress and highlight points of concern. For the international community, the survey helps target diplomatic efforts and reform assistance. The narratives and scores clearly highlight the problems and successes of each government, and separate recommendations sections prioritize the steps that should be taken by the countries in question to remedy deficiencies in governance.