Nested Conflict: The Political Dynamics of the Syrian Uprising

Held on June 2, this talk covered the roots and dynamics of the Syrian uprising with emphasis on its transformation from a legitimate demand for accountability and democracy to a regional and international power-play that sidelined ordinary Syrians. The emphasis will be the web of local, regional, and international actors and dynamics characterized by the framework of “Nested Conflict,” which embeds several battlegrounds at different levels (international, regional, local) and domains (military, ideological, diplomatic). The framework is based on Syria’s strategic significance whose change in power, association, and fortunes has broad repercussions beyond Syria.

About the Speaker

Bassam Haddad is an associate professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. 

He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and coeditor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). 

Haddad is cofounder/editor of Jadaliyya ezine and executive director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as founding editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is coproducer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism.

Haddad serves on the board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is executive producer of Status audio magazine and director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received the Middle East Studies Association Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Haddad is working on his second Syria book titled, Understanding The Syrian Tragedy: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).

He received his BA, MA, and PhD from Georgetown University.