Rather than developing south Syria economically, having recaptured it militarily, the Assad regime has reverted to the same old neglect and misgovernance that pushed the region to revolt in the first place.

A recent book argues violence is not merely an incidental feature of the Assad regime’s rule in Syria, but rather an inseparable component of its governance strategy, consciously pursued and pervading almost every detail of citizens’ interaction with the state.

A quick English summary of our Arabic news coverage this week.

[Editor’s note: All events, dates, and places mentioned in this text are real; the names used for people, however, are pseudonyms.]   Near the border strip separating the Syrian village of al-Rafid from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, refugees displaced from the towns and villages of southern Syria’s Daraa Province set up hundreds of tents in the summer of 2018. By the thousands, they were fleeing…

Though the pro-regime axis has its own reasons for wanting to avoid an Idlib offensive, there is ultimately no reason to think last week’s cessation of hostilities has any more chance of holding than its predecessors, argues James Snell.

[Editor’s note: The below article was produced as part of Al-Jumhuriya’s 2017 Fellowship for Young Writers. It was originally published in Arabic on 1 February, 2018.] At the end of 2014, the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (ISIS) managed to impose itself as a military force to be reckoned with on the ground, dominating a larger combined area of Syria and Iraq than any other party to…

The process by which all men and women between the ages of anything and anything with souls already predisposed to departure depart, begins with a gentle hand on your shoulder.