Imagining Localism in Post-Conflict Syria: Prefigurative Reconstruction Plans and the Clash Between Liberal Epistemology and Illiberal Conflict

ABSTRACT

The liberal epistemology of prefigurative post-conflict reconstruction plans for Syria sits in tension with the messiness and materiality of Syria's illiberal conflict ontology. I argue that this tension has three principal consequences for Syrian reconstruction and post-conflict interventions more broadly. First, the clash reinforces authoritarian state power through interveners continued cooperation with the Syrian regime. Second, knowledge production continues to peripheralize messy conflict ontologies for legible ones, effecting the norms and practices of intervention. Finally, the marginalization of liberal interveners and practices provides space for the emergence of authoritarian models of peace-making and conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• Syria
• authoritarianism
• localism
• knowledge production
• reconstruction

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude for the insightful and thorough readings of previous versions of this paper by external reviewers and the Journal’s editors. For their honest comments and edits, I am also grateful to Sonia Rosen and Benjamin Muller.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Interview, September 22, 2017.

2 Interview, October 4, 2017.

3 According to an interlocutor, similar problems emerged around the social justice nexus as the Arabic translation, al-adalah al-ijtimeeah was a popular economic slogan of the Ba’ath Party. Syrian participants never objected to the goal of ‘social justice’ or ‘reconciliation’ but the specific translation of that vocabulary rendered the workshops legible in an entirely different, more hostile, way.

4 Personal communication, November 2018.

5 Electronic communication with former Syrian private banking official, August 2016.

6 Interview, October 25, 2017. Electronic communication, January 2018.

7 Interview, September 22, 2017.

8 Electronic communication, October 2017.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Samer Abboud

Samer Abboud is Associate Professor of Global Interdisciplinary Studies at Villanova University.