The Assad regime cannot live without the very pillar of its existence: the gulag. This is the case made by Jaber Baker and Uğur Ümit Üngör in their book Syrian Gulag: Inside Assad’s Prison System, published in October 2023. In this meticulously researched and eye-opening work, the authors argue that the carceral system built by the Assads straddles the “gray zone” between concentration camp and…