Post-Assad Syria: Conflict, Identity and the Challenges of Reconstruction

Abstract

This article analyses Syria’s political and identity trajectory from the colonial period to the fall of the Ba’ath regime in 2024, arguing that political Islam has consolidated itself as a response to crises of legitimacy and belonging in the post-colonial context. The temporal scope begins with the French Mandate, encompasses the rise of the Ba’ath from the 1940s onwards, and extends to the developments that culminated in the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the rise to power of HTS. The theoretical framework combines post-colonial theory—drawing on Fanon, Said and Aslan—with the literature on political Islam, particularly Kepel and Roy, situating the Syrian case within a broader process of identity reconfiguration in the Muslim world. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative historical-analytical approach, based on a review of the relevant literature. It concludes that Syria’s stability will depend on the articulation between internal dynamics and external geopolitical pressures. Keywords: Syria; Islam. Identity. Colonialism. Cultural identity.This article analyses Syria’s political and identity trajectory from the colonial period to the fall of the Ba’ath regime in 2024, arguing that political Islam has consolidated itself as a response to crises of legitimacy and belonging in the post-colonial context. The temporal scope begins with the French Mandate, encompasses the rise of the Ba’ath from the 1940s onwards, and extends to the developments that culminated in the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the rise to power of HTS. The theoretical framework combines post-colonial theory—drawing on Fanon, Said and Aslan—with the literature on political Islam, particularly Kepel and Roy, situating the Syrian case within a broader process of identity reconfiguration in the Muslim world. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative historical-analytical approach, based on a review of the relevant literature. It concludes that Syria’s stability will depend on the articulation between internal dynamics and external geopolitical pressures. Keywords: Syria; Islam. Identity. Colonialism. Cultural identity.