War-Torn The Unmaking of Syria, 2011-2021

Syria as we knew it does not exist anymore. However, all conflicts change countries and their societies. Such an obvious statement needs to be unpacked in specific relation to Syria. What has happened, what does it mean, and what comes next?

In order to consider the future of Syria, it is crucial to assess not only what has been destroyed, but also how it was destroyed. It is equally vital to address the structural and possibly enduring results of large-scale destruction and displacement. These dynamics are not only at play in Syrian society, but are tearing at the economic fabric and very territorial integrity of the country. If war is a powerful process of human and material destruction, it is equally a powerful process of spatial, social and economic reconfiguration. Nor does it stop at national borders--the unravelling of Syria, and of the idea of Syria, has affected and will continue to affect the entire Middle East.

War-Torn explores these transformations and the processes that fuel them. It is an indispensable account throwing light on neglected aspects of the Syrian war, and a much-needed contribution to our understanding of conflicts in the twenty-first century.

Leïla Vignal is Professor of Geography at the École normale supérieure, Paris, and the editor of The Transnational Middle East: People, Places, Borders. Specializing in cities, globalization and transnational dynamics in the Middle East, since 2011 she has studied the transformations of Syria and of
its society through the war.