Leaders, Friends and Foes in the Middle East Series

hosted by Professor Raffaella A. Del Sarto


The starting point of the book, War-Torn: the Unmaking of Syria, is quite simple: Syria, as we knew it, does not exist anymore. However, this obvious statement—conflicts do indeed change countries and their societies—needs to be unpacked.

Its key premise is that in order to consider the future of Syria, it is crucial to assess not only what was destroyed, but also how it was destroyed. It is equally important to address the structural and possibly enduring features resulting from large-scale destruction and displacement, at play in the territorial and economic fabric of Syria, as well as in its society.

Indeed, if war is a powerful process of human and material destruction, it is also a powerful process of spatial, social and economic reconfiguration. It does not stop at the border and affects the whole Middle East.

These transformations, and the processes that fuel them, are explored in this book, an important document regarding the neglected aspects of the Syrian conflict, which will also deepen our understanding of conflicts in the 21st century.

LEÏLA VIGNAL

Dr. Leïla Vignal is Associate Professor in Human Geography at the University of Rennes-2 in France. She works on cities, globalisation and transnational dynamics in the Middle East. Since 2011, Vignal has studied the transformations of Syria and its society through the war. She is the editor of The Transnational Middle East: People, Places, Borders (Routledge).