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There is no doubt that the political speech of the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is of exceptional importance in understanding the developments of the war in Syria, and clarifies the position of all parties involved in the war, whether local, regional or international. Accordingly, and based on the dismantling of political discourse, the identification of its core, as well as its variables and major themes of this discourse, this study aims to understand the levels of complexity, paths and the fate of the war in Syria that certainly does not come free of charge, the hardest of which is the human cost whether for the victims or the displaced persons.

After a careful study of all the resilient factors in the literature review to categorize the primary data based on Assad’s discourses in the media, through a “qualitative research study” of his “interviews and discourses,” it is found that the Assad’s rhetoric is highly relevant to his tenacious presidency. The research reveals the themes that dominated Assad’s interview responses and speeches and his strategy of framing the revolution as a foreign insurgency against his government. In fact, Assad delegitimizes any semblance of the uprisings as a “pro-democracy movement” or “revolution,” denying the presence of a rebellion against his government.

By the analysis the study found out that Bashar Al-Assad continued to focus on certain reasons and issues that led to the crisis and the continuation of the war, such as the Muslim Brotherhood’s involvement, considering the Syrian opposition abroad as agents of Western countries, Syria is subject to a regional and international conspiracy, terrorism is a major scourge that must be fought and that the army is essential in resolving the battles taking place there. Likewise, emphasizing the internal dialogue with all stakeholders and involved parties is the way to solve the crisis.The Syrian President’s speeches do not focus much on the accusations against his regime from the opposition or the international parties involved in the conflict.

Assad’s resiliency has made him a distinct leader in the region. This paper analyzes the factors contributing to Assad’s resiliency. The literature review consists of the existing theories on authoritarian persistence and Assad’s power base in particular. The literature review discusses the factors that helped Assad adopts his resiliency strategies to the conflict environment. The research focuses on how Assad used the media as a platform for displaying his own manipulative narrative of the conflict. It concludes that Assad’s use of the media as his propaganda tool legitimized his rule, making it highly relevant to his persistence.

The purpose of this paper is to question the effectiveness of violence, armed rebellion in this case, as a means to topple oppressors. It takes the Syrian armed rebellion as a case study.

This paper empirically examines arguments about nonviolent actions and their effectiveness and how violent action harmed the Syrian revolution. The paper adopts the Syrian revolution as a case study.

The paper finds that the shift from nonviolent to violent action harmed the revolution. However, the Syrian case remains hypothetical because the uprising tuned violent already in late 2011. Nevertheless, based on statistical and academic observations the paper finds that the impact of the militarization has been destructive without fulfilling the uprising's goals.

Because the Syrian conflict is a recent one, still ongoing, and there is a time lag in the publication of academic papers and books, this paper necessarily draws on newspaper articles and online sources in presenting the case study.

The paper looks at the developments of the Syrian conflict from a different angle than the mainstream narratives. Furthermore, it contributes to the field of nonviolence studies by investigating the new Syrian case, which has not been well-systematically researched from this perspective.

Mobilization by diaspora activists against illiberalism in their country of origin and by immigrants for equality in their country of settlement has received widespread attention in political science and sociology, respectively. However, because extant studies treat these mobilizations as distinct types, little is known about the relationship between diaspora and immigrant mobilization. This chapter addresses this theoretical gap using 167 interviews with Syrian and Yemeni activists in the United States and Britain. The findings demonstrate how Syrian and Yemeni diaspora mobilization in support of the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions facilitated their visibility and voice as immigrants. Syrians built an organizational field with the capacity to contest host-country discrimination and local extremism; Yemenis instituted protests and brokerage that shaped the context of reception for home-country elites and challenged intragroup inequality. At the same time, economic disparities between national groups shaped their capacities to diversify tactics and sustain efforts over time. My chief claim is that diaspora mobilization facilitates immigrant voice and visibility but is mitigated in important ways by group-wise resources. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the importance of voice and visibility among marginalized groups subjected to intersecting repressions.

The wave of popular unrest in the Arab world reached Syria in March 2011, and what started as peaceful demonstrations with simple demands of justice and freedom turned into a brutal armed conflict and a full-scale civil war. Over seven years of conflict resulted in the deaths of over half a million Syrians, the forced displacement of millions more, and a huge loss of the country's social and physical structures. What began as another Arab Spring movement against a dictatorial regime has turned into a proxy war that has attracted the interests of the world and regional powers. The paper discusses Syria's political history and investigates the motives for the Syrian uprising and argues that it is related to socio-economic deprivations rather than sectarianism. The work underlines the interests of the countries involved in the Syrian conflict focusing on Russia, USA, Iran, and Turkey, as well as their contribution to the future reconstruction of the country.

Over the past few years, the Syrian regime and its allies targeted many cities and destroyed opposition-held neighborhoods. The work considers if this destruction was part of an overall strategy adopted by the al-Assad regime to terrorize those who opposed it and change Syria demographically, examining the new laws issued by the government to transfer public properties into the hands of its loyal businessmen factions, as in the case of the reconstruction project in the city of Homs.

Seven years of war exhausted Syria's financial stocks, and the country (and in turn the regime) is suffering the consequences of military spending. But like any other war, destruction is also a great opportunity to generate money through reconstruction and growth. It is a “win-win situation”; the regime will use the fund designated for reviving the country to its own benefit, gaining future profits. Already invested in the conflict, involved countries will be part of the reconstruction process to secure their presence and control in Syria.

United Nations agencies like UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) are working closely with the Syrian regime and its governmental representatives. This research examines their involvement and how their ‘humanitarian mission' is being exploited to prop up the al-Assad regime.

The purpose of this study is to identify the information needs and information-seeking behaviour of Syrian refugees displaced to Egypt.

Qualitative data in the form of three focus groups were collected from 37 Syrian refugees who have displaced to Egypt and are concentrated mainly in Greater Cairo. In-depth interviews were conducted in September 2016.

Data collected about the demography of Syrian refugees revealed that they tend to be men, slightly more than half, mostly with no formal education, with an average age in the mid-30’s, labelled as low-income persons and mostly single. Findings also showed that much of the information needed by Syrian refugees was described as realistic and real, but some was less clearly defined. All Syrian refugees’ information needs are strongly linked to their daily tasks. The majority of Syrian refugees reported that their priority information need was to be aware of the situation in their home country, followed by issues related to their states of the diaspora that they are passing through, such as services provided to their children, shelter and aid in general, as well as rights and obligations related to their refugee status. They also showed that they need information to help get the right or any appropriate work in the host country (Egypt). The study showed that many Syrian refugees were seeking information that meets their basic daily needs. It also showed that the information-seeking behaviour profile of a very large number of Syrian refugees was to prefer informal sources to formal sources to meet everyday problems, as well as troubles challenged by them. A very large number of Syrian refugees revealed that the verbal communication with friends and families were identified as the most popular informal sources of information sought. The study revealed that most of the Syrian refugees were able to use a variety of technologies for the purpose of communication with others, especially mobile phones, being the most key communication devices followed by almost all of them. The use of assisting technologies and devices, such as the computer and the internet and its vast applications proved to be meaningful by Syrian refugees. Other assisting technologies are also heavily used by Syrian refugees, particularly social media, including social networking sites and many other mobile applications. In addition, Syrian refugees have also relied on other technologies and tools to meet their information needs, including television and satellite channels, especially Arabic, which are widely distributed in the Arab environment. Because of some difficulties related to education and awareness, a number of Syrian refugees were not using any type of library. Syrian refugees have met several problems and challenges in accessing information. Such problem may make it difficult to find basic services, make informed decisions and stay in communication with families. Such problems have also a significant impact on their seeking and using information. Finding appropriate work to get money to secure housing, psychological burdens suffered concerning the image of being refugees, emotional distress, lack of accessing some basic services such as education and transportation, lack of financial resources, lack of time, lack of motivation and cultural and social barriers, were significant to Syrian refugees when seeking information. In spite of these challenges and problems met by Syrian refugees, a good number of them wished to improve their image as refugees and to improve their disastrous situation. Based on the review of the existing literature, as well as the findings of this study, further research is needed to understand information needs and information dissemination among Syrian refugees fled to Egypt and how they perceive, select, use, access and evaluate sources of information. Proper strategies should be designed towards the use of traditional and commonly used information dissemination channels among these refugees, such as cultural performances and group discussions. Research is also needed on the impact of illiteracy on the use of information by this category of information users. Owing to the fragile role played by different types of libraries in meeting the information needs of refugees, further research is seriously needed in this regard. In addition, appropriate services should be provided to refugees.

This study focuses only on Syrian refugees displaced to Egypt. It does not cover any other refugees inside or outside Egypt, although they significantly exist in Egypt, such as Palestinians, Sudanese, Iraqis, Yemenis, Africans and many other nationals. Any conclusions resulting from this study are limited to only Syrian refugees hosted by Egypt.

This study tries to investigate the Syrian refugees’ information needs and behaviours in terms of their thoughts, motivations, attitudes, preferences and challenges met by them in their search of information. It tries to look at the factors and characteristics that affect this search. Any results from this study may generate interest and create awareness of the information needs of refugees among advocates who are interested in such groups of information users.

This study attempted to identify a significant gap in identifying the information needs and information-seeking behaviour of Syrian refugees displaced to Egypt. It is the first study of its type to address, in a systematic way, this disadvantaged group resettled and hosted by Egypt. Syrian refugees displaced to Egypt have become a matter of major concern that should be addressed and met by serious academic researchers, as well as by official authorities. The literature on the topic of this research revealed that further research is still needed to be undertaken on such group of information users, as there is a very limited research conducted on this topic in developing and Arab countries, including Egypt, particularly among academic library and information professionals.

This study aims to highlight the dimensions of the rivalry over the regional role between two regional powers in the Middle East, and the impact of local, regional and international pressures of the Syrian crisis on the role performance of the competing forces.

The study is based on using “the role approach” as an analytical frame to benefit by the application of the theory of role. This approach allows the possibility of linking various analytical levels, both in clarifying the relationship between internal and external factors and showing the interaction between elements of perception, abilities and behavior.

The international pressures shall remain governing the frame of competition among the roles of the regional powers, through determining the course of competition and its direct impact on its results.

This study examines the phenomenon of regional rivalry between two distinct and competing regional powers, in a turbulent environment in the wake of the Arab Spring crises, which created opportunities and challenges for regional powers, especially in Syria, where it intersected with the interests and policies of major and regional powers.

This paper stems from a 12-month collaborative enquiry between a group of Syrian academics in exile in Turkey and academics from the University of Cambridge into the state of Syrian Higher Education after the onset of the conflict in 2011. The purpose of this paper is to draw on 19 open-ended interviews with exiled Syrian academics; two focus groups; mapping and timeline exercises; and 117 interviews collected remotely by collaborating Syrian academics with former colleagues and students who were still living inside Syria at the time of data collection. The findings of the research suggest that Syrian HE after 2011 was fragmented across regions; in some cases non-existent, and in others deemed to be in a state of reform in order to meet student needs. Key issues that emerged from this work are human rights’ abuses directed against academics and students including the detainment, purging and kidnapping of academics, an increased militarisation of university life and a substantive loss of academic and human capital.

The overall design involved two workshops held in Turkey (in June and July, 2017) at which the Cambridge team explained the stages of undertaking qualitative research and planned the collaborative enquiry with Syrian co-researchers. The first workshop addressed the nature of qualitative research and explored the proposed methods of interviewing, using timelines and mapping. The instruments for interviewing were constructed in groups together and mapping was undertaken with the 21 Syrian academics in exile who attended the workshop. Syrian academics also built their own research plans as a way of expanding the consultation dimension of this project inside Syria, engaged in survey and interview protocol planning and discussed ways to access needed documentation which could be drawn upon to enrich the project. The Syrian co-researchers interviewed remotely HE staff and students who had remained in, or recently left, Syria; the key criterion for group or participant selection was that they had recent and relevant experience of Syrian HE. The second workshop focused on data analysis and writing up. There was also wide consultation with participants inside and outside Syria. As part of the research, the Cambridge team conducted open-ended interviews with 19 Syrian academics and students living in exile in Turkey. This involved interviewing Syrian scholars about their experiences of HE, policy changes over time and their experiences of displacement. The researchers developed this protocol prior to the capacity-building workshops based on previous research experience on academic and student displacement, alongside extensive preparation on the conditions of Syrian HE, conflict and displacement. In addition to interviewing, a pivotal element of methodological rigour was that the authors sought to member check what participants were learning through mapping and timeline exercises and extensive note-taking throughout both workshops. The major issues that the authors confronted were ethical concerns around confidentiality, the need to ensure rigourously the protection of all participants’ anonymity and to be extremely mindful of the political sensitivity of issues when interviewing participants who may not feel able to fully trust “outsider” researchers. Issues of social trust have been reported in the literature as one of the most significant drawbacks in conducting research in “conflict environments” (see Cohen and Arieli, 2011) where academics and students have been working and/or studying in autocratic regimes or were operating within political contexts where being open or critical of any form of institutional life such as university work or the nation could cost them their jobs or their lives.

The accounts of Syrian academics and students emerging from this work point to some of the state-building expressions of HE manifested in the shaping of professional and personal experiences, the condition and status of HE, its spatial arrangements and their associated power formations, and resulting in feelings of intense personal and professional insecurity among Syrian scholars and students since 2011. While acknowledging that the Syrian situation is deemed one of the worst humanitarian crises in the region in recent decades, these accounts resonate, if in different ways, with other studies of academics and students who have experienced highly centralised and autocratic states and tightly regulated HE governance regimes (Barakat and Milton, 2015; Mazawi, 2011).

Currently, there is virtually no research on the status and conditions of higher education in Syria as a consequence of the war, which commenced in 2011. This work presents a first-person perspective from Syrian academics and students on the state of HE since the onset of the conflict. The major contribution of this work is the identification of key factors shaping conflict and division in HE, alongside the political economies of HE destruction which are unique to the Syrian war and longstanding forms of authoritarian state governance.