What do you think?
Rate this book
The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East
An unprecedented analysis of the crucial but underexplored roles the United States and other nations have played in shaping Syria’s ongoing civil war
“One of the best informed and non-partisan accounts of the Syrian tragedy yet published.”—Patrick Cockburn, Independent
Syria’s brutal, long-lasting civil war is widely viewed as a domestic contest that began in 2011 and only later drew foreign nations into the fray. But in this book Christopher Phillips shows the crucial roles that were played by the United States, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar in Syria’s war right from the start. Phillips untangles the international influences on the tragic conflict and illuminates the West’s strategy against ISIS, the decline of U.S. power in the region, and much more.
Originally published in 2016, the book has been updated with two new chapters.
“One of the best informed and non-partisan accounts of the Syrian tragedy yet published.”—Patrick Cockburn, Independent
Syria’s brutal, long-lasting civil war is widely viewed as a domestic contest that began in 2011 and only later drew foreign nations into the fray. But in this book Christopher Phillips shows the crucial roles that were played by the United States, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar in Syria’s war right from the start. Phillips untangles the international influences on the tragic conflict and illuminates the West’s strategy against ISIS, the decline of U.S. power in the region, and much more.
Originally published in 2016, the book has been updated with two new chapters.
401 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2020
23 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Phillips
119 books10 followersChristopher Phillips is Professor of History and Department Head at the University of Cincinnati.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 7, 2021
Probably THE best book on the conflict in Syria (it was recommend by Patrick Cockburn so I checked it out). And best means in the context of books on Syria primarily bipartisan. It's also very concise and analytical and 'dense'. It took quite some time to work my way through this.
If I had to recommend books on Syria, it would be this one and Joseph Daher's book 'Syria after the uprisings' which provided a more materialist analysis - a rare find in the shitty genre of international politics. That's it, the rest you'll have to get from various articles and think pieces and then try to subtract the biases. As there are no journalists on the ground and every faction knows a thing or two about media warfare, you need to really invest a lot of effort in making sense of this conflict. I am still struggling but slowly getting there. انشالله
So I won't go into any details for obvious reasons but I appreciated the chapter on the wider regional context, especially how the 2003 invasion in Iraq set in motion dynamics (e.g., pro-Iran government in Iraq and rising sectarianism, creation of ISIS, Kurdish nationalism) provide an important background to the conflict in Syria. Obviously, the coming to power of Putin and Erdogan in the first decade of the 21st century are very critical pieces in this puzzle as are internal developments in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, especially vis-a-vis the Arab Spring and all actors' collective experience of the regime change in Libya (which many - including the opposition - mistook as a blueprint for Syria while for the West it served as an important lesson not to get engaged militarily - these miscalculations of US intent had significant consequences for the conflict).
One question I have been asking myself a lot is how exactly we have gotten to this point - essentially destroying a whole country for nothing. I have been reading 'analyses' from the early days of the now ten-year conflict and the book stresses that a driving factor behind this 'war that everybody lost' was the lack of institutional knowledge about and ties with Syria among the key actors. For instance, in 2009, the State Department's Syria desk had one staff. While the US had decades of ties and intelligence of Egypt. This also resulted in the US mistakenly comparing Syria with Egypt despite these being totally different regimes with totally different US leverage.
Similarly, among Turkey's 135 Ministry of Foreign Affairs middle east staff, only six spoke Arabic. Saudi Arabia and Qatar also had a very limited understanding of the workings of the Syrian state (often based on flawed narratives produced by exile communities) and had zero experience in pulling off a proxy war (Qatar had some recent but useless experience from Libya and thought that Syria would be somehow similar despite the contexts being structurally totally incomparable). And so on.
It seems that the more accurate analysis that came from Western Ambassadors in Damascus at the time - who cautioned against regime change as they knew this wouldn't happen - was largely ignored.
BTW there was an interesting think piece in Foreign Affairs last week by the then-US Ambassador in Damascus Robert Ford, advising the new Administration on abandoning the failed approach (...). 2021 is an opportunity to end this war (and others such as Yemen) and start urgently rebuilding (...). I read somewhere that the level of economic collapse in Syria is greater than Germany and Japan after 1945. The costs of war are so unimaginable - reconstruction costs estimates for Syria range from somewhere around USD 500 billion to USD 1 trillion but as Afghanistan and Iraq have shown, rebuilding physical infrastructure is the smallest challenge compared to rebuilding society (...). يلا
If I had to recommend books on Syria, it would be this one and Joseph Daher's book 'Syria after the uprisings' which provided a more materialist analysis - a rare find in the shitty genre of international politics. That's it, the rest you'll have to get from various articles and think pieces and then try to subtract the biases. As there are no journalists on the ground and every faction knows a thing or two about media warfare, you need to really invest a lot of effort in making sense of this conflict. I am still struggling but slowly getting there. انشالله
So I won't go into any details for obvious reasons but I appreciated the chapter on the wider regional context, especially how the 2003 invasion in Iraq set in motion dynamics (e.g., pro-Iran government in Iraq and rising sectarianism, creation of ISIS, Kurdish nationalism) provide an important background to the conflict in Syria. Obviously, the coming to power of Putin and Erdogan in the first decade of the 21st century are very critical pieces in this puzzle as are internal developments in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, especially vis-a-vis the Arab Spring and all actors' collective experience of the regime change in Libya (which many - including the opposition - mistook as a blueprint for Syria while for the West it served as an important lesson not to get engaged militarily - these miscalculations of US intent had significant consequences for the conflict).
One question I have been asking myself a lot is how exactly we have gotten to this point - essentially destroying a whole country for nothing. I have been reading 'analyses' from the early days of the now ten-year conflict and the book stresses that a driving factor behind this 'war that everybody lost' was the lack of institutional knowledge about and ties with Syria among the key actors. For instance, in 2009, the State Department's Syria desk had one staff. While the US had decades of ties and intelligence of Egypt. This also resulted in the US mistakenly comparing Syria with Egypt despite these being totally different regimes with totally different US leverage.
Similarly, among Turkey's 135 Ministry of Foreign Affairs middle east staff, only six spoke Arabic. Saudi Arabia and Qatar also had a very limited understanding of the workings of the Syrian state (often based on flawed narratives produced by exile communities) and had zero experience in pulling off a proxy war (Qatar had some recent but useless experience from Libya and thought that Syria would be somehow similar despite the contexts being structurally totally incomparable). And so on.
It seems that the more accurate analysis that came from Western Ambassadors in Damascus at the time - who cautioned against regime change as they knew this wouldn't happen - was largely ignored.
BTW there was an interesting think piece in Foreign Affairs last week by the then-US Ambassador in Damascus Robert Ford, advising the new Administration on abandoning the failed approach (...). 2021 is an opportunity to end this war (and others such as Yemen) and start urgently rebuilding (...). I read somewhere that the level of economic collapse in Syria is greater than Germany and Japan after 1945. The costs of war are so unimaginable - reconstruction costs estimates for Syria range from somewhere around USD 500 billion to USD 1 trillion but as Afghanistan and Iraq have shown, rebuilding physical infrastructure is the smallest challenge compared to rebuilding society (...). يلا
January 18, 2025
4.25/5 stars
*2020 “While Assad’s international enemies have reduced support for his domestic opponents, they retain the capacity to reactivate networks if they want to pressure Damascus or its patrons”
And so Christopher Phillips end his book and ultimately foresaw the future. In december 8 2024, Assad and his family fled Syria in fear of the retribution they would face if they were get a hold off.
The most fascinating thing about this book is that in the end of it Turkey was one of the losers in this conflict. But right now they are the most successful because they quick rebel takeover (mainly by HTS) was most likely facilitated by Turkey. The main powers that supported Assad were busy (Russia, Iran and Hezbollah) elsewhere and so the time was right to attack an unsuspecting Regime.
To end this review: Christopher gives an excellent and extremely detailed analysis about the Syrian conflict and all the proxies, states and parties involved. What state did what particular thing to help either the rebels or Assad and also what would they expect out of this assistance.
I am very curiously looking at what is next for Syria
*2020 “While Assad’s international enemies have reduced support for his domestic opponents, they retain the capacity to reactivate networks if they want to pressure Damascus or its patrons”
And so Christopher Phillips end his book and ultimately foresaw the future. In december 8 2024, Assad and his family fled Syria in fear of the retribution they would face if they were get a hold off.
The most fascinating thing about this book is that in the end of it Turkey was one of the losers in this conflict. But right now they are the most successful because they quick rebel takeover (mainly by HTS) was most likely facilitated by Turkey. The main powers that supported Assad were busy (Russia, Iran and Hezbollah) elsewhere and so the time was right to attack an unsuspecting Regime.
To end this review: Christopher gives an excellent and extremely detailed analysis about the Syrian conflict and all the proxies, states and parties involved. What state did what particular thing to help either the rebels or Assad and also what would they expect out of this assistance.
I am very curiously looking at what is next for Syria
November 8, 2021
A book worth reading and drawing lessons, despite the feelings of heartbreak, sadness and pain it generates. A neutral non-partisan and objective book, well documented by references, that lists and records the events that took place in Syria during the past ten years, almost day by day for a full decade, and shaped the war inside Syria. It describes, compares, analyzes and concludes convincing judgments most of the time.
كتاب يستحق القراءة واستخلاص العِبر، رغم مشاعر الحسرة والحزن والألم التي يولدها. كتاب محايد وموضوعي وموثق جيدًا بالمراجع ، يسرد ويسجل الأحداث التي وقعت في سوريا خلال السنوات العشر الماضية ، يومًا بيوم تقريبًا طوال عقد كامل من الزمن ، وقررت شكل واتجاه الحرب داخل سوريا. يصف ويقارن ويحلل ويخلص إلى أحكام مقنعة في معظم الأوقات، منطلقاً من دور التدخلات الخارجية في الداخل السوري وأهدافها.
كتاب يستحق القراءة واستخلاص العِبر، رغم مشاعر الحسرة والحزن والألم التي يولدها. كتاب محايد وموضوعي وموثق جيدًا بالمراجع ، يسرد ويسجل الأحداث التي وقعت في سوريا خلال السنوات العشر الماضية ، يومًا بيوم تقريبًا طوال عقد كامل من الزمن ، وقررت شكل واتجاه الحرب داخل سوريا. يصف ويقارن ويحلل ويخلص إلى أحكام مقنعة في معظم الأوقات، منطلقاً من دور التدخلات الخارجية في الداخل السوري وأهدافها.
September 29, 2021
A good book and very well researched, but very academic and highly detailed which made it a slight slog to get through. Would not recommend to those looking for a high level overview of the conflict.
March 21, 2022
By far the best and most comprehensive analysis of the motives for, and failures of, foreign interventions in the Syrian civil war.
December 15, 2025
Very complex in-depth history. Very very well researched. Not a straightforward read!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews