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Syria has long presented a difficult problem for American policymakers. Actively supportive of groups such as Hezbollah, it has occupied Lebanon for more than 20 years. Damascus remains intransigent on Israel's complete withdrawal from the disputed Golan Heights as the sine qua non for peace with that state. It is often mentioned in the same breath as members of the infamous "axis of evil." Syria occupies an important strategic position in the Middle East—one made even more significant as America considers long-term involvement in the reconstruction of Iraq. As the policy challenges posed by Syria's problematic behavior have grown more pressing in the recent security environment, the United States has had difficulty formulating a coherent and effective policy toward Damascus. The death of long-time dictator Hafiz al Assad has forced renewed debate on its place in the region. The transition from Assad to his son Bashar has thrown Western consensus on how to deal with the Syrian leadership further into doubt. In heriting Syria fills this void with a detailed analytic portrait of the Syrian regime under Bashar's leadership. It draws implications for U.S. policy, offering a bold new strategy for achieving American objectives, largely via a strategy of "coordinated engagement" employing both sticks and carrots. This strategy would be independent of the Arab-Israeli peace process, thus a historical departure for the United States. The author's long service in the foreign policy establishment has uniquely positioned him to provide valuable insights into this mysterious yet important country. This book will be of high interest to those concerned about the Middle East, the war on terror, and the future of American foreign policy. Written for a general audience as well as the policymaking and academic communities,her iting Syria is is an important resource for all who seek deeper understanding of this enigmatic nation and its leadership.
- Sales Rank: #1831192 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Brookings Institution Press
- Published on: 2005-04-15
- Released on: 2005-05-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.36" h x 1.09" w x 6.34" l, 1.27 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 286 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
Review
"Leverett offers an incisive analysis of how Hafez Assad operated and what motives underlay his endless maneuvering and calculation." —Thomas W. Lippman, The Washington Post, Book World, 6/12/2005
"This book is valuable for its account of Syria under Bashar al-Asad, but especially for its insights into the US policy process and the divisions within the US foreign policy establishment....Leverett's measured analysis (along with inside accounts of other moderates) gives hope that the voices of reason may yet prevail in the corridors of Washington power." —Raymond Hinnebusch, The Middle East Journal
"Inheriting Syria is recommended for public and academic libraries and to those interested in Middle Eastern affairs." — Curled Up, 11/16/2005
"At a time in Washington when policy interests chase down facts, near facts or fiction, what suffers is honest analysis, common sense and nuance. Fortunately, that is what Leverett offers in the discussions of Bashar's performance thus far in managing Syria's domestic- and foreign-policy." —Martha Neff Kessler, Middle East Policy
"an exhaustive study of the country's policies and ambitions under the young president." —Tim Boxer, 15 Minutes
"Flynt Leverett's book is one of the few that make sense. It is a sympathetic and well-researched account of Syria since the death of its long-time leader President Hafez al-Asad five years ago." —Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat, 10/24/2005
"This book, with no doubt, is destined to serve as an important source for studying contemporary Syria....In sum, Leverett's book is an important, interesting, and informative one. It will serve as a vital source of information for anyone interested in learning more about Syria and Bashshar al-Asad. It also offers important insights into Washington's mode of conduct vis-a-vis Syria in recent years." —Eyal Zisser, Middle Eastern Studies
"Leverett parts the veil to show us the complex workings of this state sponsor of terror, possessor of WMD, and important player in determining the future of the Middle East. From peace for Israel to the security of U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria has a veto. Leverett shows how the unlikely leader in Damascus is struggling with the strange regime his father built." —Richard A. Clarke, former U.S. national coordinator for counterterrorism and author of AGAINST ALL ENEMIES
"Flynt Leverett is a 'country specialist' in the best sense of the term. He is thoroughly familiar with Syria's politics and policies as well as the ins and outs of the U.S.-Syrian relationship. This is a well-balanced assessment of Bashar and his regime, offering a thoughtful analysis and critique of U.S. policy as well as alternative options." —Itamar Rabinovich, President, Tel Aviv University
"When I served as Director of Central Intelligence, Flynt Leverett was one of my 'go-to' analysts on the Middle East, particularly Syria. In 1996, his forthright analysis helped U.S. policymakers walk Israel and Syria back from the brink of armed conflict. He now brings that same analytic acumen and historical perspective to the difficult choices facing the United States. No matter what your point of view, this is a well-written and solidly argued book that could not be more timely." —George J. Tenet, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and former Director of Central Intelligence
"Bashar al-Asad's Syria has remained a mystery to most observers. Flynt Leverett's book begins to unravel the mystery. He offers an insightful picture of who the younger Asad is; how he seeks to follow the 'script' he inherited from his father; which political, familial, psychological, sectarian, and bureaucratic factors constrain him; and what approaches by the United States might most effectively alter Bashar's behavior and the balance of forces in Syria. For anyone interested in understanding Syria today and considering the options for dealing with it, this book is essential reading." —Dennis B. Ross, Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former special Middle East coordinator
About the Author
Flynt Leverett is a senior fellow and director of the Global Energy Initiative in the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. Most recently, Leverett was a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy. He has served as senior director for Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, and as a senior Middle East analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency.
From The Washington Post
In the 1970s, when the Lebanese civil war forced me to move The Washington Post's Middle East bureau out of Beirut, the Syrians invited me to set up shop in Damascus. No restrictions, they said. No wiretaps. Write what you want.
Yeah, right. The Syria of President Hafez Assad was a country where visiting journalists waited until after they had left to file their stories -- and sometimes kept their bylines off the articles to protect themselves and their sources. It was repressive, backward and opaque. Today, almost 30 years later, Syria under the rule of Hafez Assad's son Bashar is still repressive and backward. But it has been rendered considerably less opaque thanks to Inheriting Syria, a succinct but masterful dissection by Flynt Leverett.
Hafez Assad ruled Syria with an iron hand for three decades, beginning in 1970. He was crafty, brutal and relentless in promoting what he perceived as Syria's interests. Under his rule, the previously fractious and coup-prone country became, in Leverett's words, "a veritable model of authoritarian stability."
Assad groomed his eldest son, Basil, to succeed him, but Basil died in an automobile accident in 1994. The elder Assad then designated another son -- Bashar, a British-trained ophthalmologist -- to carry on the family's rule. Leverett argues that the aging dictator spent the last six years of his life tutoring a reluctant Bashar in the skills he would need and the policies he should follow upon becoming president. Since taking over after his father's death in 2000, Bashar has essentially followed a script written by his more skillful father -- trying to manage Syria's noxious domestic politics and its stagnant economy, the violence and unpredictability of the Middle East, and Damascus's troubled relations with the great powers, especially the United States. If it sometimes seems that Bashar's policies are contradictory or detrimental to Syrian interests, Leverett writes, it is because he is not a free agent. His hands, ultimately, are tied by the legacy of his father.
Syria has been making headlines recently, but the timing of Leverett's book is unfortunate. Between the time that bound galleys were distributed to reviewers and the book's release, Leverett was able to make changes to account for the worldwide outrage that followed the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, for which many Lebanese blamed Syria. But Leverett, now a Brookings Institution fellow, did not have time to evaluate the withdrawal from Lebanon of Syria's armed forces -- a step Bashar was virtually forced to take even though it deviated fundamentally from his father's script.
Inheriting Syria also won't make good beach reading. Leverett's prose is at best workmanlike and at times convoluted, and reading it requires high tolerance for the use of the word "behavior" in the plural. But his book is nevertheless essential for understanding a complicated country and the politics of the entire Middle East.
Leverett offers an incisive analysis of how Hafez Assad operated and what motives underlay his endless maneuvering and calculation. Aside from staying in power, Assad's overriding goal was to prevent Syria from being marginalized. Syria would be inconsequential in international and perhaps even regional politics were it not a neighbor of Israel, and Leverett brilliantly explains how Assad used this accident of geography to force the world to take him and his country seriously. It is unfortunate that Warren Christopher, secretary of state during President Clinton's first term, did not have access to Leverett's insights during his numerous futile pilgrimages to Damascus in search of a Syria-Israel peace agreement; if he had, he would have known he was wasting his time.
On the other hand, President George W. Bush and his foreign policy advisers did have access to Leverett's insights but, according to the author, failed to respond to them. As senior director for Middle East affairs on the National Security Council staff, Leverett notes, he had "the best seat in the house" as Bush made critical decisions about the region, but he ultimately "disagreed with enough of those decisions to leave the administration." He argues that in the "with us or against us" atmosphere after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration forfeited opportunities to moderate Syria's behavior and end its support for terrorist groups such as Hezbollah by refusing to engage with a country that Washington has long designated a state supporter of terrorism.
Yet Leverett's dissatisfaction with current U.S. policy toward Syria leads him into -- or possibly arises from -- the one major flaw in this otherwise very useful book: He is much too lenient toward Bashar, giving him the benefit of the doubt even when his policies appear obtuse or counterproductive. Leverett refers to Bashar's "relative newness to the presidency," yet in July he will have been in office five years. And he writes that Bashar has been obliged to defer on some issues to "old guard" insiders from his father's day, even though they are "strategically autistic" and incapable of recognizing "how the world changed on September 11, 2001, in ways significant for Syria." Other analysts of Syrian affairs have concluded that it is Bashar himself who has been "strategically autistic" about the impact of Sept. 11 on American thinking about Arab rogue states. The old games of thrust and parry, maneuver and dissemble that he learned from his father are over, as far as Washington is concerned. If Bashar Assad wants to go on supporting Hezbollah, sheltering Palestinian extremists and playing Baathist footsie with Sunni insurgents in Iraq, the desire for improved relations with the United States that Leverett attributes to Syria's young leader is doomed.
Reviewed by Thomas W. Lippman
Copyright 2005, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.
Most helpful customer reviews
30 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
Good information, failing hypothesis
By Hussain Abdul-Hussain
I will give this book five stars because it is perhaps the only book available in English that offers this kind of information on Syria, even though such information is widely available in Arabic texts. Leveret t provides a highly accurate description of the power circle in Syria despite the few minor mistakes.
The author then cites a number of Bashar's statements and encounters to support the book's main point: that Bashar Assad has genuine intentions for change and positive overture toward the United States except that the US is not currently willing to reciprocate this kind of behavior.
Leverett then examines the possibilities facing America when dealing with rogue states like Syria. According to Leverett, there are four options: sanctions, military campaigns or alternatively, Leverett suggests that the United States employs what he terms as "conditional engagement."
The author dismisses sanctions saying that they proved to be inadequate if applied unilaterally without Europe's involvement. He argues that military campaigns exposed America's limited human and financial resources as the United States maintains considerable missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and other regions of the world.
Therefore, Leverett suggests that the US start building trust with Syria and provide Bashar and his young team leverage over the old guard in his presumed bid to change and modernize Syria. American-Syrian trust building can start from the successful exchange of intelligence information on Al-Qaeda and be expanded to include exchange of other favors. According to Leverett, these incentives would be the carrots as opposed to the many sticks with which America will threaten Syria in case the latter fails to comply.
Consequently, and over the medium and long terms, such a policy will benefit both nations even though the author does not suggest that it will lead to the democratization of Syria. He stated, however, that trying to unseat Bashar would only bring instability and Muslim fundamentalists to power and that Bashar remains America's best bid in Syria.
The hypothesis of the book is interesting, even though it has nothing new to it. This kind of containment-of-dictators policy has dominated America's foreign policy prior to 9/11 and has not proven any particular success. Furthermore, a main prophecy in the book failed the test of time since according to Leverett, a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon would lead to a Lebanese civil war. By the time this review was written, Syrian troops had been outside of Lebanon for over a month and nothing like civil strife yet appears to be coming in the Lebanese horizons.
As for Israel, Leverett makes it known that Bashar's attitude to the US is independent of the procession of any Syrian-Israeli peace. Leverett quoted Bashar as saying that he was ready to "bracket" the peace process for the time being while he improves Damascus's bilateral relations with Washington. This can only be a proof that Arab dictators like Bashar are never as genuinely concerned about re-gaining any disputed land inasmuch as they are interested in keeping the Arab-Israeli conflict going so that they can use it as a pretext to justify their leadership and divert their people's hate against foreign enemies and away from their tyranny and corruption.
18 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
Rather disappointing
By tomas
This book promises much, particularly in dealinhg with this little-known(in the U.S., at least), but ultimately very important lynchpin in the Middle East. There is interesting material on the Assad family as well as the Syrian political environment and dynamic, BUT too many of the annotated sources are highly questionable, e.g., Leverett quotes frquently from publications by the washington Center on Near East Policy, aan American Likudnik organization closely tied to AIPAC, the principal Israeli lobby ijn this country. Additionally, he quotes from Daniel Pipes, the highly controversial creator of the McCarthyite CAMPUS WATCH, to 'monitor and censure' College Professors not teaching Middle Eastern Affairs from an Israeli-centric view. Pipes, widely regarded as an Arabophobe and Islamophobe throughout academic circles, is a highly biased source. Although this book is valuable since there are so few others on the subject available in English, it should be used and studied with great caution. Too bad, an excellent opportunity by the author has been missed.
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
CIA view of Syria politics
By Suhail Habal
In the absence of clear independent historian scholar studies of that part of the world, this book present limited view of the political culture in Syria, It has clear illustration of the events occured during the elder Assad, and his son Bashar, tinted with the CIA view, what is missing is the view of the intellectual opposition of these events in Syria and surrounding arbic countries. While most of the facts detailed in the book are well detailed but the interpertation of such events was clearly clouded with the western view of the dynamics of the middle east and without any critical evalution what the beheviors of Israeli occupation had influanced such dynamics.
Overall, I found the book a great trial to understand the comlexity of Syria political arena. And I would like to see the response of the intellectual scholar supporting or oppsing such ineheritence.
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