Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel
1. “Updated Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in the Syrian Arab Republic,” report commissioned by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, June 13, 2013, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/SY/HRDAG-Updated-SY-report.pdf. Also see Ian Black, “Syrian deaths near 100,000, says UN—and 6,000 are children,” The Guardian, June 13, 2013, and “Syria death toll tops 100,000,” The Telegraph, June 26, 2013 www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10142892/Syria-death-toll-tops-100000.html.
2. Michelle Nichols, “Syrians fleeing war at rate not seen since Rwandan genocide: U.N.” Reuters, July 16, 2013 www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/16/us-syria-crisis-un-idUSBRE96F11120130716.
3. Michelle Nichols, “Syria death toll likely near 70,000, says UN rights chief,” Reuters, February 12, 2013.
4. “Pillay renews call to refer Syria to world criminal court,” Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, February 13, 2013, www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/PillayToSecurityCouncil.aspx. From March 2011 to May 2013 Amnesty International has published sixteen reports on Syria, Human Rights Watch seven, and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria four, all available on their respective websites.
5. Desmond Tutu, “We are shamed by Syria’s suffering,” March 25, 2013, http://theelders.org/article/we-are-all-shamed-syrias-suffering.
6. Samantha Power, “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide (New York: Basic Books, 2002).
7. For background on Syria see Steven Heydemann, Authoritarianism in Syria: Institutions and Social Conflict, 1946-1970 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999); Bassam Haddad, Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012) and Fouad Ajami, The Syrian Rebellion (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2012).
8. Mohammed Ayoob, “The New Cold War in the Middle East,” The National Interest, January 16, 2013, http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-new-cold-war-the-middle-east-7974, and Fawaz Gerges, “Syrian hostilities bring Middle East catastrophe closer,” CNN.com, May 6, 2013, http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/06/opinion/opinion-gerges-syria
9. This six-point plan outlines a set of guidelines and principles for a political transition in Syria. The full text is available at: http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Syria/FinalCommuniqueActionGroupforSyria.pdf.
10. Dmitri Trenin, “Syria: A Russian Perspective,” Sada, June 28, 2012, http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/06/28/syria-russian-perspective/ccln.
11. Aron Lund, Syria’s Salafi Insurgents: The Rise of the Syrian Islamic Front (Stockholm: Swedish Institute for International Affairs, UI Occasional Paper no. 17, March 2013): Elizabeth O’Bagy, Jihad in Syria (Washington DC: Institute for the Study of War, Middle East Security Report 6, September 2012); Ben Hubbard, “Islamist Rebels Create Dilemma on Syria Policy,” New York Times, April 27, 2013.
12. See Michael Walzer, “The Argument about Humanitarian Intervention,” Dissent, Winter 2002, pp. 29-37, among many articles and books.
13. For a discussion of liberal internationalists who opposed the Iraq war, see Michael Bérubé, The Left at War (New York, NY: NYU Press, 2009), p. 146.
14. Though many of the war’s neocon proponents deployed humanitarian rhetoric, the 2003 invasion of Iraq was not a humanitarian intervention. Humanitarian interventions are limited to stopping mass atrocities in real time.
15. Quoted in Mark Mazzetti, Eric Schmitt, and Erin Banco, “No Quick Impact in U.S. Arms Plan for Syria Rebels,” New York Times, July 14, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/world/middleeast/no-quick-impact-in-us-arms-plan-for-syria-rebels.html.
16. See Dexter Filkins, “The Thin Red Line: Inside the White House Debate over Syria,” The New Yorker, May 13, 2013, 40-49.
17. See, for example, Daniel Pipes, “Stay out of Syria: Intervention is a trap,” Washington Times, August 20, 2012, www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/20/stay-out-of-syria; and Pipes, “The argument for Assad: If the Syrian regime falls now, worse rogues will win,” Washington Times, April 11, 2013, www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/11/pipes-argument-assad
18. For an example of the latter, see “Syria, intervention and the Arab revolution,” an interview with Gilbert Achcar, author of The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising (London: Saqi Books, 2013), at http://blip.tv/ecosocialism/syria-intervention-and-the-arab-revolution-6538205
Shadi Hamid
19. Steven A. Cook, “It’s Time to Think Seriously About Intervening in Syria,” The Atlantic, January 17, 2012, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/its-time-to-think-seriously-about-intervening-in-syria/251468/
20. Shadi Hamid, “Why We Have a Responsibility to Protect Syria,” The Atlantic, January 26, 2012, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/why-we-have-a-responsibility-to-protect-syria/251908/
21. Steven A. Cook, “Could a Syrian Intervention Work?” The Atlantic, March 2, 2012, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/could-a-syrian-intervention-work/253893/
22. Shadi Hamid, “Lessons of the Libya Intervention,” The Atlantic, August 22, 2011, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/08/lessons-of-the-libya-intervention/243922/
Michael Ignatieff
23. On these themes, see Michael Ignatieff, Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism (New York: Penguin, 1993) and The Warrior’s Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience (New York: Metropolitan, 1998).
24. Richard Holbrooke, To End A War (New York: Random House, 1998)
25. Stephen M. Walt, “The dearth of strategy on Syria,” ForeignPolicy.com, March 21, 2013, http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/03/21/the_dearth_of_strategy_on_syria
26. Leon Wieseltier, “Syria, Bosnia and the Old Mistakes,” The New Republic, March 12, 2013, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112605/syria-bosnia-and-old-mistakes. For the Obama interview, see Franklin Foer and Chris Hughes, “Barack Obama Is Not Pleased,” The New Republic, January 27, 2013, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112190/obama-interview-2013-sit-down-president.
27. C. J. Chivers and Eric Schmitt, “Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A.,” New York Times, March 24, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/world/middleeast/arms-airlift-to-syrian-rebels-expands-with-cia-aid.html.
Afra Jalabi
28. I have changed the names of the activists inside Syria to protect their identities, but have not changed the names of the activists living outside Syria.
29. The Day After project, an initiative of the United States Institute of Peace, is an international working group of Syrians representing a large spectrum of the country’s opposition engaged in an independent transition planning process. See http://www.usip.org/the-day-after-project.
Anne-Marie Slaughter
30. Anne-Marie Slaughter, “How to Halt the Butchery in Syria,” New York Times, February 23, 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/opinion/how-to-halt-the-butchery-in-syria.html
Tom Farer
31. Howard LaFranchi, “Will Obama’s new atrocities board lead to more Libya-style operations?” Christian Science Monitor, April 23, 2012, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2012/0423/Will-Obama-s-new-atrocities-board-lead-to-more-Libya-style-operations
32. Michel Seurat, Syrie, l’Etat de barbarie (Presses Universitaires de France, 2012).
33. T.A. Frank, “Let Them Eat Kebabs: Why Asma Al Assad is the perfect dictator’s wife for the twenty-first century,” The New Republic, April 25, 2013, www.newrepublic.com/article/112899/syrias-asma-al-assad-perfect-dicators-wife
Rafif Jouejati
34. Shadi Hamid, “Why Is There a ‘Red Line’ on Chemical Weapons but Not on 70,000 Deaths?” The Atlantic, April 26, 2013, www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/why-is-there-a-red-line-on-chemical-weapons-but-not-on-70-000-deaths/275328/
Marc Lynch
35. Michael Doran, Salman Shaikh, “Arm the Syrian Rebels. Now.” Foreign Policy, February 8, 2013, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/08/arm_the_syrian_rebels_now_assad_obama
36. Kenneth M. Pollack, “How, When and Whether to End the War in Syria,” Washington Post, August 10, 2012
37. See Idean Salehyan, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, and David E. Cunningham, “Explaining External Support for Insurgent Groups,” International Organization Volume 65 Issue 04 October 2011, pp. 709-744.
38. Steven Heydemann, “Managing militarization in Syria,” ForeignPolicy.com, February 22, 2012, mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/02/22/managing_militarization_in_syria; Salman Shaikh, “Losing Syria (And How to Avoid It),” Brookings Doha Center Policy Briefing, October 18, 2012, www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/10/18-losing-syria-shaikh
39. Marc Lynch, “The Syria debate, continued,” ForegnPolicy.com, January 24, 2013, lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/01/24/the_syria_debate_continued
40. Robin Yassin-Kassab, “Fund Syria’s Moderates,” ForeignPolicy.com, January 23, 2013, www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/01/23/fund_syria_s_moderates_rebels_civil_war
Nader Hashemi
41. Stephen Zunes, “Syria: U.S. involvement could make things worse,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, May 3, 2013, http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/opinion/ci_23169164/stephen-zunes-syria-u-s-involvement-could-make.
42. See the contributions in this volume by Charles Glass, and Aslı Bâli and Aziz Rana. Also see Jonathan Steele, “Syria: How We Can End the Bloodshed,” The Guardian, January 31, 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/31/syria-israel-attack-political-solution. For Noam Chomsky’s views see Aida Edemariam, “Noam Chomsky: ‘No individual changes anything alone’,” The Guardian, March 22, 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/22/noam-chomsky-no-individual-changes-anything-alone.
43. Human Rights Watch, Syria’s Tadmor Prison (New York: Human Rights Watch, April 1, 1996). Available at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/04/01/syrias-tadmor-prison.
44. Human Rights Watch, Torture Archipelago: Arbitrary Arrests, Torture and Enforced Disappearances in Syria’s Underground Prisons Since March 2011 (New York: Human Rights Watch, July 3, 2012). Available at: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/03/syria-torture-centers-revealed.
45. According to figures provided by the Violations Documentation Center in Syria from March to August 2011. Available at: http://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/.
46. Amnesty International, Crackdown in Syria: Terror in Kalakh (London: Amnesty International, 2011), 19; Human Right Watch, “We Live as in War”: Crackdown on Protesters in Governorate of Homs (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2011), 55-56; United National Human Rights Council, “Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic,” November 23, 2011, A/HRC/S-17/2/Add.1
47. Nick Cumming-Bruce, “More Than 60,000 Have Died in Syrian Conflict, U.N. says,” New York Times, January 2, 2013.
48. See the dozens of reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN Human Rights Council that chronicle the human rights catastrophe in Syria. On sexual violence see Lauren Wolfe, “Syria Has a Massive Rape Crisis,” The Atlantic, April 3, 2013, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/syria-has-a-massive-rape-crisis/274583/.
49. See Fergal Keane’s interview with the boys from Deraa who launched the first protests. They explicitly reference the other Arab Spring revolts as a motivation. “Syria: The boys who helped spark a revolution,” BBC News, April 13, 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22140807.
50. Rana Kabbani, “From the Turks to Assad: to us Syrians it is all brutal colonialism,” The Guardian, March 29, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/30/turks-assad-colonialism-family-mafia.
51. Liam Stack, “In Sometimes Deadly Clashes, Defiant Syrians Protest,” New York Times, April 17, 2011.
52. Frank Barat, “Reframing the Israel-Palestine conflict,” New Internationalist, April 1, 2011, http://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2011/04/01/palestine-israel-interview-pappe/. Also see Rami Khouri, “The Long Revolt,” Wilson Quarterly (Summer 2011), 43-46.
53. Robert Fisk, “Truth and reconciliation?: It won’t happen in Syria,” The Independent, May 7, 2011.
54. “‘Friends of Syria’ recognize opposition,” Al Jazeera (English), December 12, 2012, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/12/201212124541767116.html.
55. “The Position of NATO’s Secretary General Regarding Intervention in Syria,” Statement by the Syrian Coalition, April 24, 2013. http://www.etilaf.org/en/newsroom/press-release/item/433-the-position-of-nato%E2%80%99s-secretary-general-regarding-intervention-in-syria.html.
Thomas Pierret
56. One of the best reports on these problems is Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, “How to Start a Battalion (in Five Easy Lessons),” London Review of Books 35, no. 4, 21 February 2013, 13-14, http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n04/ghaith-abdul-ahad/how-to-start-a-battalion-in-five-easy-lessons.
57. On the role of private Salafi benefactors from Kuwait, see Elizabeth Dickinson, “Kuwait, ‘the back office of logistical support’ for Syria’s rebels,” The National, February 5, 2013, http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/kuwait-the-back-office-of-logistical-support-for-syrias-rebels.
58. C.J. Chivers and Eric Schmitt, “Saudis Step Up Help for Rebels in Syria With Croatian Arms,” New York Times, February 25, 2013; Jonathan Dupree, “Syria Update: The Southern Battlefronts,” Institute for the Study of War, April 5, 2013 (www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/syria-update-southern-battlefronts).
59. The Awakening Councils were militias that were recruited by the US and Iraqi governments among Sunni Arab tribes in order to fight al-Qaeda in the country. These tribesmen were often former allies of al-Qaeda and switched sides thanks to substantial financial incentives.