In the midst of turmoil in the Middle East, and in the face of protests and demonstrations from Homs to Damascus and other places all over Syria, the Ba'th Party and Bashar al-Asad are truly caught up in a struggle to hold onto power in Syria. In this important book, Nikolaos van Dam explores and explains how the Asad dynasty has come to rule Syria for about half a century and keep the complex patchwork of minorities, factions and opponents securely under control for such an unprecedented long period. Through an in-depth examination of the role of sectarian, regional and tribal loyalties,...

Following the Arab Spring, Syria descended into civil and sectarian conflict. It has since become a fractured warzone that operates as a breeding ground for new terrorist movements, including ISIS, as well as the root cause of the greatest refugee crisis in modern history.

In this book, former Special Envoy of the Netherlands to Syria, Nikolaos van Dam, explains the recent history of Syria: the growing disenchantment with the Asad regime, the chaos of civil war, and the fractures that led to an immense amount of destruction in the refined social fabric of what used to be the Syrian...