The Arab Ba'ath Movement and The Rise of the Baath Party in Syria

With the end of World War One and the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the allied powers in Europe were left in control of the Ottoman territory in the Middle East. The nation of France was left in control of the area now known as Syria and Lebanon. The French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon, which was formalized in 1922, officially made France responsible for creating the two states and preparing them for self-governance (Kjeilen). By 1943 both nations had achieved their independence from France, and they agreed to a tentative mutual security agreement. However relations between the two nations remained strained. While the governments of both nations were unified in their opposition to

The French’s mandate over Syria after World Ware One had an irrevocable impact on the nations’s communal factions. The mandate lasted from 1920-1946 and they begun their rule with intentionally made sectarian divisions. They were made in order to prevent Arab nationalism and stifle national independence movements. The divisions were made my religious and national minority. Granting the minorities independent status locations where they make up the majority. For example, there was a large population of Alawites in the mountain range behind Latakia, the French declared them a separate state. The Druze were granted the right and ability to govern themselves in the city of Jabal, just south of Damascus. The one religious group that did

In the Middle East, each country has it’s own form of government. These forms of governments have been consistently changing throughout time. Throughout all the revolutions and overthrows, the national identity of the Middle East has slowly changed, some parts more than others. Over many years, overthrows in countries such as Egypt and Libya have led to a more democratic government. However, many other countries such as Iran and Iraq have remained more oppressive. The Middle East is still changing to this day. For example, Egypt recently overthrew their president Hosni Mubarak. There are also many protests currently going on in Libya.

The Syrian Civil war has its foundation rooted in civil protest, against the current government led by President Bashar al-Assad.

The Baathist regime was dismantled not only in it higher chains of command, but in lower, more common bureaucratic functions (e.g. office workers, teachers, labor officials, etc.), leaving much of the Iraqi population unemployed and, with time, and with continually rising death tolls and destruction in their cities, all more incentive to join insurgent groups, or groups of Sunni, Shiite, or other militias vying for control in postwar

“More than 250,000 Syrians have lost their lives in four-and-a-half years of armed conflict.” (Syria: The Story of the Conflict). These horrific killings began when the anti-government protestors. After a short while, civil protesting became a full

The Syrian capital, Damascus, has seen many changes throughout history. Today, it is populated by of a number of ethnic groups, mostly Arab, a reasonable number of Kurds, and Armenians are also present. Syrians have had many protests against Assad and have wanted him and his government to step down. During a protest on March 25, 2011 thousands of Syrians were demanding reforms and “mourning dozens of protesters who were killed during a violent, week-long crackdown that brought extraordinary pressure on Bashar al-Assad's autocratic regime.”

The Arab Spring reflect to employ new idea to tackle socio-economic and political crises and that remain unsolved for decades (Foley, 2013). The government in Arab world are much more different and is risky to approach these uprising as one set of movement. Most regime in post-communist states change with elite consensus and almost no role of military except Romania, while the Arab was moved to the upper movement and military played a key role in transition process (Foley,

The movement began as a peaceful demonstration but eventually outside forces joined and began to use this movement for other purposes - mainly violent ones. The protests turned into massive ones around March of the same year and thousands of people took the streets of Syria. Later in April 2011, the Syrian government decided to send out the military to subdue the protests. Opposition groups began to arm themselves and fight back, and they were aided by the Syrian military members who joined them as well. The government was not happy about these protests and they responded with extreme measures such as torturing and killing protesters, kidnapping, and mistreatment. The government troops opened fire on civilians and the civilians fired back in response to this. The result of this was the Syrian army quickly turning this to an armed conflict. Daily, terrorist groups sabotage innocents, blow up buildings/infrastructure, bomb roads, and murder civilians in mass scales. Many communities are destroyed and terrorized, families are displaced and broken apart, and people are being murdered on the streets - security officials and civilians. These evil acts are being put through by the Free Syrian Army, as well as some ISIS overlap.

In this day and age, we find ourselves at odds with our “identity” as we find that not only are we representing ourselves, but we also have ties to religion, sect, tribe, and family (Angrist). This shows that despite the cohesiveness and threads that attach us, it has the power to pull people, families, and in some cases countries apart. This conflict comes to a head when religion and ethnicity are interwoven. Hence when divisions occur, this can lead to violent wars that destroy trust between individuals. This can ingrain a sense of uneasiness and distrust that plagues people’s ideas and leaves a country divided. This is particularly evident in Lebanon. Ethnic and religious division led to the festering of feelings of marginalization and discrimination, which boiled over into the Lebanese civil war, a war that claimed the lives of 150,000 people (Szekely). The anger and frustration birthed from this to chaos, and conflict has in turn increased the division between ethnic and religious factions and led to the crumbling of Lebanese nationalism. This essay is specifically aimed at assessing the relationships between ethnic and religious divisions in Lebanon and explores how it contributed to the civil war. This is done by identifying and analyzing the main actors and makes an explanation of the historical divisions stemming from the National Pact, branching out to include the consequences of the civil war on the political structures and the identities of the

The Ba’ath party, a political party that combines Arab nationalism with socialism, strived to increase middle class’ wealth, as well as create a country of prosperity and innovation. Saddam Hussein had great economic intentions for the country, but is nonetheless responsible for the deaths of

The French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon came into effect once Faisal’s Kingdom surrendered. Voted on at the League of Nations after the war, but originally conceived in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, Greater Syria was to go to the French after the war and Palestine and Iraq would be under British control. The Sykes-Picot division of the Middle East is one of the many reasons that the issues of today are the way they are. The French ruled by mandate, which, in theory meant that they were to govern the territory until the people were able to rule for themselves. After carving up the Middle East as a whole, the French went on the further divide the territory by separating it into five separate states, based on the different population centers

President Assad was given an outstanding western education, receiving a degree for ophthalmology from a London-based medical school. Naturally there was hope that since Assad had spent time in one of the most consolidated democracies, he might have been more willing to implement democratic measures in Syria than his father. Assad’s rise to power was actually through a series of rather lucky events for him. Originally his older brother was selected as his father’s heir but an unexpected car accident thrust Bashar into the spotlight. Upon the death of his father, Bashar then proceeded to be appointed leader of the major political party and the army after which he was elected president.

Over the last century, the Middle East has been the location of ethnic rivalry, political and economic instability, religious conflict, territorial dispute and war. Much of this tension in the Middle East comes from the various interpretations of Islam and how the religion should be applied to politics and society. Over the last ten years, the United States and their allies have pushed to promote democracy in the Middle East. However, they too have many obstacles they must overcome. They face problems such as the compatibility of Islamic law and democracy, the issue of women’s rights, and there is always the problem of how to go about implementing a democratic reform in these countries. Many initially would assume that it is only the

Since the Arab revolutions in Tunisia , Egypt, Libya and Yemen , as well as in Syria mounts to talk about the impact of these revolutions on the Arab political scene in general and the Arab relations - Arab , Will lead variables internal politics which will be witnessed by those countries to reforms in other states and whether led to change in the structure of the Arab political scene in general.