Sectarianism and Mechanism of Secatarianization of the Syrian Crisis

LI Haipeng

Department of Arabic Language and Culture, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University

Arab World Studies, 2021.01

Abstract:

Most of the current researches on the role of sectarian factors in the Syrian crisis hold an instrumentalist view, tending to overlook the necessary conditions under which sectarian identity could be instrumentalized and micro-mechanism of mass mobilization among sectarian groups. This article shows that sectarian factors are indeed not the root cause of the Syrian crisis, but historically accumulated interest conflicts, social divisions, and hostility between different sectarian groups during the Assad family’s rule constitute prerequisite for the sectarianization of the crisis and initial framework for mass mobilization. From the outset of the Syrian crisis in 2011, spontaneous mass mobilization and violence along sectarian lines have already emerged. Through different policies, elites at home and abroad intervened directly or indirectly in the voluntary mobilization of different sectarian groups, creating or strengthening historically accumulated and newly emerging factors such as sectarian hostility, conflicts of interest, ability, awareness of opportunity, thus triggering and intensifying the mechanisms of dilemma/spiral model and intergroup-intragroup interactions, which ultimately led to the sectarianization of the crisis.

Key Words:

Sectarianism; Syrian crisis; Sectarianization; Dual-track system of governance