Syrian Tribal Networks and their Implications for the Syrian Uprising

Jamestown Foundation Terrorism Monitor ^ | 6/1/2012 | Carole A. O'Leary, Nicholas A. Heras

[bruinbirdman]

Sunni Arab tribalism has a significant socio-cultural, political, and security impact on the current uprising in Syria, with strong implications for post-Assad governance formation. Tribalism has fueled unrest throughout Syria, including in places such as Dera’a, where mass opposition demonstrations began on March 15, 2011, in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on the Euphrates River, and in the suburbs of Homs and Damascus, where some of the fiercest combat between the Syrian military and armed opposition groups has occurred. Millions of rural and urban Syrians express an active tribal identity and tribal affiliation is used extensively to mobilize the political and armed opposition against the Assad government as well as to organize paramilitary forces in support of the Syrian regime. Both the Syrian opposition and the Assad government recognize the political importance of the tribal networks that cross Syria and extend into neighboring countries. As a result, the support of Syria’s tribes is a strategic goal for both the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition.

Tribal Networks – The Social Demographic Impact of Tribalism in Syria

The Syrian Ba’ath Party has traditionally sought to undermine the independence of the country’s tribes through intimidation, infiltration, and dependence. These aggressive policies continued under the Assad government and were exacerbated by decades of economic stagnation and the near total collapse of the rural economy of regions in southern and eastern Syria due to drought, corrupt use of water resources and mismanagement of croplands where many tribesmen resided (Jadaliyya, February 16). In spite of these severe difficulties, tribal networks in Syria are, ironically, better equipped at present to influence the opposition against the Assad government than at any other point in Syria’s modern

[Tainan]

"Tribalism" is a factor that most intel, political analyzers and mil groups fail to factor in in their situational analysis.
Much to their later dismay.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks bruinbirdman.

[sandboxshooter]

Exactly. I remember hearing in Baghdad from one of the Sheiks there the extent of his tribe through the entire Middle East. Mess with one group and you’d have fighters comeing from most countries in the M.E. Sobering to say the least.....

[Tainan]

Exactly. In many cultures, Tribalism trumps any form of Nationalism.

This is a missed fact among the analysts.

[arthurus]

A powerful factor is the input from the USA for a Jihadist Islamic government and sharia.