An Urgent Call to Break the Cycle of Division and Exclusion in Syria

(Deyaa Alrwishdi – Just Security) The fall of Bashar Al-Assad on Dec. 8, 2024 is perhaps the most consequential moment in Syria’s modern history. After decades of repression, Syrians earned a long-awaited and rare opportunity to reckon with one another and build their nation. Days after Assad’s fall, Rebecca Hamilton and I advocated for an incremental, locally-led constitutionalism to overcome Syria’s history of constitutional formalism and public distrust of authority. Fifteen months later, the caretaker authority has squandered much of that opportunity and continued down a path of exclusion and division. Analysts have extensively discussed and critiqued the exclusionary nature of the Victory Conference and subsequent National Dialogue Conference, the hyper-presidential system embedded in the Constitutional Declaration, and repeated outbreaks of sectarian violence. It is important to first examine Syria’s history of communal division and political exclusion, to contextualize the complicated legacy that inescapably affects Syria’s transitional process, and must be accounted for within it. Thus far, the caretaker authority has complicated rather than addressed this legacy, and the viability of the path forward depends on prioritizing genuine reconciliation and engaging the public as authors rather than subjects of Syria’s future. The caretaker authority must use whatever remaining leverage it has to bring about these changes. The question is whether it is willing to do so. – An Urgent Call to Break the Cycle of Division and Exclusion in Syria