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Overview
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, Inheriting Syria is an important resource for all who seek deeper understanding of this enigmatic nation and its leadership.
Synopsis
Currently at the Brookings Institute stage of a revolving door that also swings through the US National Security Council, the State Department, and the Central Intelligence Agency, Leverett seeks to reduce the level of analytic uncertainty about Syrian politics and policy, to develop an actionable portrait of the country under president Bashar al-Asad—who succeeded his father without an intervening ruler—and to draw the implications of that portrait for US policy. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Foreign Affairs
The death of Hafiz al-Assad in June 2000 ended what may well have been the longest "reign" (30 years) of anyone in Damascus since the rise of Islam. Only one Umayyad caliph lasted more than 20 years, and the most time any leader stayed at the top during independent Syria's stormy saga from the 1940s to 1970 was fewer than five years. Clearly, the father managed to put together a durable system. Is the son continuing in the same vein, or is he, in the Mafia metaphor proposed by Leverett, the son of Don Corleone who wants to make the family business legitimate? After surveying the last five years, Leverett concedes that "the jury is still out about Bashar's gradualist approach to internal reform." As for Bashar's foreign policy, Leverett, who tracked Syria as a U.S. government official from the late 1990s to 2002, tells the story largely in terms of U.S.-Syrian relations. He does not stint in relating how Syria has stymied U.S. goals (and often been maddeningly difficult in the process), but his reading of the record is that Washington now needs to offer Bashar's regime a more coherent policy of "conditional engagement."