“State of Barbary” (Take Two): From the Arab Spring to the Return of Violence in Syria

Unlike the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings in 2011, the Syrian Revolution has endured for more than three years. The uprising burst from the “peripheries” of the regime into an organized national movement, clinging at the beginning to the ideal of a nonviolent, nonsectarian upheaval aiming at a democratic Syria. Yet, the dynamics of contention between the regime and social movements have been reshaped, leading to a return of violence with the risks of sectarian civil war looming.