Can sectarianism explain the conflict in Syria?

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Near East Near Orient grade: 69/100 School of Oriental and African Studies University of London course: Political Society of the Middle East language: English abstract: In mid-March 2011 protests against arbitrary leadership and for democratic institutions took place in Syria's major cities. The Syrian regime has responded brutally and the dynamics have since been developing into an ongoing armed conflict. Soon counting its sixth year the Syrian conflict has been described as sectarian in character. Other scholars have criticized the usage of this term and the concept behind it in this particular context. Overall this paper will argue that the concept of sectarianism does help to explain the current conflict in Syria while listing and explaining the areas in which the concept helps as well as stressing the dangers implied when using the term and which analyses have to accompany the usage of the concept i.e. how the concept does not help to explain the conflict. For this purpose a historical perspective will be avoided in order to account for the modernity of the involvement of sectarianism in Syrian politics. The author attempts to put the concept into its modern context. Main time frames and features of the conflict outlined in the following are regarded as critical in the sectarianization of the political sphere and therefore in the development of the conflict. This includes Hafez al-Assad's coup to power and the strategies employed by his regime before and after the uprisings. In particular the building of a sectarian narrative and how it serves to supply resources to the regime will be described. Lastly this paper will outline the involvement of sectarianism in international as well as extremist participation in the conflict. Taking all these factors into account the main argument of this paper is that non-doctrinal sectarianism is involved in the confl