Abstract
The Arab uprisings have generated a tremendous amount of political turmoil in the region. The uprisings occurred within the context of the ongoing American-led occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, a stalled negotiation between the West and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program, and continued stalemate on the Palestinian-Israeli peace front. There was initial optimism that the uprisings would prove as a catalyst toward resolution of long-standing regional issues, or, at the very least, lead to transition governments in the Arab World that would begin to shake-up the political status quo. As events unfolded in Tunisia and Egypt, and uprisings in Libya, Bahrain, and Syria became increasingly violent, such optimism quickly turned to cynicism.
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© 2016 Samer N. Abboud
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Abboud, S.N. (2016). Conflict, Governance, and Decentralized Authority in Syria. In: Beck, M., Jung, D., Seeberg, P. (eds) The Levant in Turmoil. The Modern Muslim World. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137526021_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137526021_4
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