About this episode

Samer Abboud discusses his book on the Syrian regime's tactics of dividing society during wartime.

On this week's episode of the podcast, Samer Abboud of Villanova University joins Marc Lynch to discuss his book, Betrayal of the Homeland: Disloyal Subjects in Wartime Syria. In the book, Abboud argues that the Syrian regime sought to entrench its rule during wartime through bifurcating society into “loyal” and “disloyal” subjects—and punishing those it deemed treacherous. The regime framed the conflict as a war on terror, portraying its opponents as traitors to the homeland. In the post-2015 period, it established new laws, courts, and legal categories that targeted “betrayal,” which could include anything from military desertion to absenteeism to critical social media posts. Disloyal subjects were subjected to various forms of punishment and denied reentry into the country if they had been displaced. Bringing together the regime’s narratives and rhetoric with the machinery of bureaucratic practices, Abboud traces how the state sculpted the divide between loyalty and disloyalty. Empirically rich and theoretically informed, Betrayal of the Homeland offers a panoramic view of the politics of punishment during the final decade of the Assad regime, with broader implications for…

People in this episode

Host: Marc Lynch

Guest: Samer Abboud

Topics covered

• Syria
• authoritarianism
• war
• loyalty
• disloyalty
• politics of punishment

Keywords

• Syria
• Assad
• loyalty
• disloyalty
• war on terror
• punishment
• bureaucratic practices

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Villanova University, Institute for Middle East Studies

Books & works: Betrayal of the Homeland: Disloyal Subjects in Wartime Syria

Places: Syria, Assad regime

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