The Syrian Crisis and Distorted Identities

Even as a highly empathetic person, providing any kind of space for ‘empathy’ as an emotion to co-exist with the issues that I came across, studied or even analyzed as a student of international relations seemed to be counterintuitive. And to an extent it can be justified as Booth mentions, that IR isn’t necessarily a field which is self-reflective. Mainstream knowledge production in IR is dominated by a very masculine hegemonic narrative (power politics and self help which is largely and ironically ‘fear-driven’- also an emotion underpinning the narrative of power ) which is surely very important to first enter into and understanding of the security predicament in particular; but as Booth says, isn’t enough to get us out of it. I realized that while a statist approach is useful to understand international security, focusing solely on that particular lens restricts the way I view and approach the issue (which is in a sense a social construction). Once this awareness set in motion, my relationship as an observer with my object of observation, changed. While analyzing a multifaceted conflict like the one in Syria, with fragile economic, geo-political but most importantly miserable humane conditions, a statist approach isn’t enough. Therefore feminist theories and the emancipatory perspective, once more adds in to the way I observe the world around me, and helps me better understand and dissect this conflictual issue, this time through a broadened lens. Without going into details due to constraints, I would say that these perspectives help me include empathy as a process, which allows me to acknowledge and thereby  tie it to the different experiences of embodied individuals( binary and non-binary with their respective intersectionality).

(Newly arrived Syrian Kurdish refugees walk with their belongings after crossing into Turkey from the Syrian border town of Kobani; Source-Getty Images)

As I elaborated in my previous blog post,  identity-both national and individual is an important focal point to understand the very nature of the Syrian conflict. Shias, Sunnis, Alawites and Kurds along with the extremist groups and external actors had their own sense of self which therefore manifested into their view of security and thus its relativity. This unavoidable relativity and lack of communal harmony led to great fragmentation in their anatomy of patriotism  and the way they defined themselves, thus distorting their sense of national identity. This paved a way for the external players to plunge in as they already assumed a certain kind of role of ‘saviors’ and so-called ‘care-takers’ of the international system from the time of the cold war. However, like the emancipatory lens suggests, it is also important to take into account the experiences of embodied and embedded individuals, because they are the primordial units of socially constructed institutions. And Ken Booth’s conceptualization of war as a cultural phenomena acknowledges the presence of intersectionality; something central to the Syrian conflict. It helps us in identifying their position with regard to the politically constructed power structures. The intersectionality underpinning individual identities, specifically, are so huge that it is important to dissect the group of Syrians who are considered to be the ‘most-vulnerable’; as rightly pointed out by my fellow peer under my previous post. Therefore I take into account the report of The Syria 2021 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) which aims to provide consolidated humanitarian analysis and construct a response plan accordingly. It identifies vulnerable residents as “defined as those living in areas hosting large numbers of IDPs (internally displaced people) and returnees and/or where access to basic services and livelihoods are significantly reduced, as well as those particularly affected by the socio-economic deterioration and growing food insecurity in particular.” It recognized the top three needs of the civilians as food and nutrition ; livelihood and winterization assistance. A further breakdown is given below. 

(Source- Humanitarian Needs Overview-HNO, UNOCHA, 2021)

(The Task Force report (2017) by the Washington publication placed Syrian women and children among the most vulnerable to the social, political, and economic fallout.)

An emancipatory perspective enables us to move away from the realist lens and ask whether the state/ political structures are actually responsible for perpetuating violence and fracturing the identity of the individuals. The plight of the 5.7 million registered Syrian refugees is poor and  those who return are subjected to detention, disappearance and torture, including sexual violence, by the state. As Booth points out- the relationship between “I” and “me” (former socially constructed and latter one’s own assumption which is also due to a combination of factors one is exposed to) constitutes the sense of self. All of these individuals in the vulnerable category would have a very fractured sense of self, considering the communal division with a decade-long history of oppression and blatant human rights violation intertwined together. The oppressed and the sufferers of the war-crimes would look at themselves through the eyes of the abusers and the oppressors present in the system. The disturbing embodied experiences of individuals wherein violence wasn’t only physically perpetrated (also psychologically and in terms of weaponizing food and water), leaves them as individuals who are far from following their aspirations because even the most basic human rights and amenities are vulnerable to be securitized. Therefore, according to the Greek notion of a good life, even if they were to have their freedom of choice on how to lead their lives, they would lack the ability to act on it and therefore some kind of intervention is very essential to support the transition which is a long way ahead. 

(Source-Getty Images)

An emancipatory lens provides an analytical framework to first question various assumptions, structures and relationships that are implicated in maintenance of insecurities for  individuals and communities. It then uses a normative framework, like Robert Cox’s critical theory to  redress insecurity and then completely transform the nature of global politics, which may be the only string of hope to help solve and repair conflictual zones like Syria, before it's too late.

Bibliography

1. Booth, Ken. (26: October 1994). “Security and Self Reflections of a Fallen Realist,” YCISS Occasional Paper Paper. https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/handle/10315/1414.

2. The Most Vulnerable Affected Syrians Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) In the Camps: PAH After Two Years In the Camps - Syrian Arab Republic.” ReliefWeb. reliefweb.int, June 11, 2018. https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/most-vulnerable-affected-syrians-internally-displaced-persons-idps-camps.

3. Dahman, Ghazi . “Has Syria Lost Its National Identity Forever? - Fanack.com.” Fanack.com. fanack.com, January 31, 2022. https://fanack.com/blogs-en/has-syria-lost-its-national-identity-forever~225474/.

4. ““You’re Going To Your Death”: Violations Against Syrian Refugees Returning To Syria [EN/AR] - Syrian Arab Republic.” ReliefWeb. reliefweb.int, September 7, 2021. https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/you-re-going-your-death-violations-against-syrian-refugees-returning.

5. Callahan, Jack, Sol Chung, Dylan O’Connor, Mariam Sena Demeke, Ceresa Eberhardt, Christine Lu, Rachel Miller, et al. “Syrian Women And Children: Identifying Gaps And Goals for Reconstruction.” Syrian Women and Children: Identifying Gaps and Goals for Reconstruction. digital.lib.washington.edu, January 1, 2017. https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/38697.

6. Head, Naomi. "Transforming conflict: Trust, empathy, and dialogue." International Journal of Peace Studies (2012): 33-55.

7. OCHA, UN. "humanitarian needs overview: Syrian Arab Republic." Retrieved from reliefweb: https://reliefweb. int/sites/reliefweb. int/files/resources/2018_syr_hno_english. pdf (2018).