%0 Journal Article
%T Stifling stateness: The Assad regime¡¯s campaign against rebel governance
%A Brent Eng
%A Jos¨¦ Ciro Mart¨ªnez
%J Security Dialogue
%@ 1460-3640
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0967010618768622
%X This article assesses the impact of the Assad regime¡¯s aerial bombardment campaign on a frequently neglected component of Syria¡¯s ongoing civil war: rebel governance. While analysis of the military and humanitarian ramifications of such attacks has been extensive, these perspectives fail to consider how the Assad regime¡¯s counter insurgency efforts subvert governance practices by Syria¡¯s diverse rebel groups. Drawing on performative approaches to the ¡®state¡¯, we argue that opposition groups¡¯ daily enactments of ¡®stateness¡¯ via two key welfare services ¨C bread and healthcare provision ¨C constitute a historically inflected and locally grounded critique of the incumbent. When executed successfully, such enactments can stabilize relations between rulers and ruled while offering a vision of an alternative polity. They can also attract the attention of rivals. The Assad regime¡¯s aerial bombing campaign of rebel-held areas is thus neither a haphazard military strategy nor simply the product of long-standing sectarian hatreds, but a deliberate tactic through which it seeks to destroy a key threat to its authority
%K Civil war
%K counter insurgency
%K rebel governance
%K state theory
%K Syria
%K welfare
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0967010618768622