The Syrian War – Bibliography and Sources

Contents

Casualties, refugees and internally displaced people, humanitarian aid

• UNHCR – Syria Regional Refugee Response – Inter-agency Information Sharing Portal
• Internal Displacement Monitoring Center – Syria
• USAID – Syria
• Hannah Strange and agencies, Syria death toll reaches 93,000: UN, 13 Jun 2013 The Telegraph
• International Crisis Group, “Syria’s Mutating Conflict,” August 2012
• Syrian Refugees in Europe – Timeline 2011
• (15 July 2013) Syria Needs Analysis by ACAPS
• (15 July 2013) Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

New type of analysis and collection

• Joanna Paraszczuk, “Syria Feature: How “Independent Analysts” Are Breaking the Stories of the Conflict,” EA WorldViews, 2 April 2013.
• Syria video
• Syria Twitter List
• Syria Experts by Gian Marco Liuni (Twitter)
• (21 Feb 2014) Aleppo Security by First Mile Geo (“First Mile Geo was leveraged to collect, manage, and visualize time-series data from within the human tragedy still unfolding in Aleppo City, street block by street block” with findings related to security, humanitarian conditions, governance, political allegiance)
• Syria Deeply (“exploring a new model of storytelling around a global crisis.” – mainly interviews, reposting and regular review referring to major media articles,  some features have not been updated since July 2013)

The Syrian Civil War, mainly domestic, battlefield

General Resources and Blogs

Must Read

• Joshua Landis’ Syria Comment (regular, original analyses and findings, often includes review of articles on Syria)
• (17 January 2014) Syria in Crisis – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (regular, original analyses and findings)
• Aymenn Jawad Al Tamimi Blog (original analyses, best source on jihadis)
• Institute for the Study of War – Syria Project and (7 October 2013) New (started 30 August 2013) blog on the Syrian war: the Institute for the Study of War Syria Updates
• Brown Moses Blog – Notably weapons, forces.
• Middle East Research Institute – Notably translations of original and noteworthy documents
• Jonathan Spyer Blog (occasional)
• Syria Report

Other (and Occasional)

• Congressional Research Service Reports
: the Middle East and the Arab World
• Syrian Revolution Digest (discontinued 13 June 2013)
• Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Center – Syria
• EAWorldview – Middle East and Turkey (Occasional)
• CFR – Syria

Causes of conflict

Tim McDonnell, How Climate Change Worsened Violence in Syria, March 6, 2013, Mother Jones .

General Syrian War

• (22 January 2014) Basma Atassi and Mohammed Haddad, “Mapping Syria’s rebellion: Interactive” – Al Jazeera, 19 Jul 2013.
• Blogs of War, Interview: Phillip Smyth on Syria, March 7, 2013.
• CFR, Mona Yacoubian on Syria’s Continuing Civil War, March 7, 2013.
• Syrian Civil War – Wikipedia
• Mona Yacoubian, selected articles, Stimson.

Actors

NC, SJMCC or SMC, and FSA*

*The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (NC), the Supreme Joint Military Command Council (SJMCC or SMC) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) – (see State of Play I)

General

• (21 October 2013) National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces official website
• Elizabeth O’Bagy, The Free Syrian Army, Middle East Security Report 9, Institute for the Study of War, March 2013.
• Asher Berman, “The Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade and The Capture of the UN Troops“,” Syria Survey, 6 March 2013.
• Ken Sofer and Juliana Shafroth, The Structure and Organization of the Syrian Opposition, Center for American Progress, May 14, 2013.
• David Ignatius, “In defeat at Qusair, Syrian rebels’ painful failings“, Washington Post, June 7, 2013.
• (3/07/2013) Robert King, Interviews with Syrian Army Defectors – The man who was there, December 2012, ViceBeta.

Muslim Brotherhood

• MEMRI – Article on Muslim Brotherhood Website: Implement Shari’a in Phases 5 July 2011.

Sufism

• Matthew Barber, Syria Comment
  1. Sheikh al-Yaqoubi Elected to the NC—its first non-Brotherhood-aligned religious figure, Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013
  2. Brotherhood Figures Block Yaqoubi’s Appointment, Post-Confirmation, Monday, May 27th, 2013
  3. Sheikh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi Interviewed by Syria Comment, Thursday, May 30th, 2013.
• Series on Salafi and Sufi influences on Islam in Syria in Syria Comment, 2007.
• Paulo Pinto, Sufism among the Kurds in Syria, Syrian Studies Association Bulletin, Vol 16, No 1, 2011.

Pro Al-Assad Groups

(See State of Play I)

• Joseph Holliday, The Assad Regime: from Counterinsurgency to Civil War, March 2013, ISW.
• “Hezbollah bites on granite in Syria“, 27 May 2013, (Last updated 28 May 2013 01:45), Anadolu Agency.
• Jeremy M. Sharp, Unrest in Syria and U.S. Sanctions Against the Asad Regime, August 9, 2011, CRS.
• Kirk S Campbell, Civil-military relations and political liberalization: A comparative study of the military’s corporateness and political values in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Pakistan, 2009, Dissertation.
• (2/07/2013) Suadad al-Salhy, Iraqi Shi’ite militants start to acknowledge role in Syria, Apr 10, 2013, Reuters.
• (2/07/2013) Mona Mahmood, and Martin Chulov, Syrian war widens Sunni-Shia schism as foreign jihadis join fight for shrines, 4 June 2013, The Guardian.

Salafi and Sunni Islamist

(See State of Play III)

• Aron Lund, Syria’s Salafi Insurgents: the Rise of the Syrian Islamic Front, UI Occasional Paper 17, Swedish Institute of International Affairs, March 2013.
• Ammar Abdulhamid, Syria 2013: Rise of the Warlords, Syrian Revolution Digest, 15 January 2013.
• Hania Mourtada and Rick Gladstone, Syrian Rebels Break With Group Over Qaeda Wing Alliance, New York Times, April 12, 2013.

Jihadi in Syria

(See State of Play III)

• Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, Jihad in Syria,
• Syria Comment, 
• March 20, 2013
• Matthew Barber Islamic State Declared in Syria, Syria Comment, April 14th, 2013,
• Pieter Van Ostaeyen’s blog
• Aaron Y. Zelin, Insight: European Foreign Fighters in Syria, 2 April 2013, ICSR
• Aaron Y. Zelin, Evan F. Kohlmann, Laith al-Khouri, Convoy of Martyrs in the Levant: A Joint Study Charting the Evolving Role of Sunni Foreign Fighters in the Armed Uprising Against the Assad Regime in Syria, June 2013, Flashpoint Partners.
• “Kadyrov confirms several Chechens fight in Syria“, 6 May 2013, TASS, The Voice of Russia.
• Daria Solovieva, “Chechens Among Jihadists in Syria“, April 26, 2013, Al-Monitor.
• Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, “Jabhat al-Nusra and The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham“, 17 May 2013, Brown Moses Blog.
• Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, “What Does “Moderate” Islamist Mean?“, 
• November 17, 2011, The Jerusalem Post
• Aron Lund, “Is Jabhat al-Nosra breaking apart?“, May 22nd, 2013, Syria Comment.
• Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, Syria: Jihad and the Battle for Qusayr, May 27, 2013.
• Europol, TE-SAT 2013: EU terrorism situation and trend report
• Christopher M. Blanchard, Al Qaeda: Statements and Evolving Ideology, July 9, 2007, CRS, Order Code RL32759
• Dr. Reza Pankhurst, Understanding calls to a Caliphate
• JIHADOLOGY: A clearinghouse for jihādī primary source material and translation service

Kurds

(See State of Play II)

Websites

• MESOP – West Kurdistan
  • West Kurdistan (Syria): Kurdwatch Newsletter – April 2013
• Wladimir van Wilgenburg’s blog, Transnational Middle-East Observer

Books, reports, posts and articles

• Tordi Tejel, Syria’s Kurds, Routledge, 2009 (pdf).
  
• Ilhan Tanir, Wladimir van Wilgenburg, and Omar Hossino, Unity or PYD Power Play?: Syrian Kurdish Dynamics After the Erbil Agreement, The Henry Jackson Society, 15 October 2012.
• Syria Report, “Insurgents Declare War on Syrian Kurds“,  27 May 2013.
• Alexandra Hudson, “Syrian Kurds fear increasing attacks from Assad forces“, April 18, 2013, Reuters. 
• AFP-JIJI, “Kurdish militia decides to align with Syria rebels“, 23 April 2013.
• Wladimir van Wilgenburg, “Clashes Break Out Between Kurdish Groups In Syria“, April 4 2013,  Al-Monitor Iraq Pulse.
•  Wladimir van Wilgenburg, “Conflict Intensifies In Syria’s Kurdish Area,” April 5 2013, Al-Monitor.
• Tulin Daloglu, Turkey-PKK Talks Move Ahead, Al-Monitor Turkey Pulse, April 3, 2013, Al-Monitor.
• “Kurdish PYD leader details the real end game threat in Syria” from an Interview with the Democratic Union Party, PYD, Co-Chairman Salih Muslim in Turkish paper Radikal… April 15,2013, The Mideastwire Blog.
• Bayram Sinkaya, Why Doesn’t Iran Want Turkey to Solve its Kurdish Issue? Author:, March 16, 2013 ORSAM (Turkey),  re-posted on:  March 20 2013, translated by Timur Goksel, Al Monitor.
• Wladimir van Wilgenburg, Iranian Kurdish PJAK Leader: We are stronger, while Tehran regime in collapsing,  31 January 2013, Rudaw.
• Jonathan Spyer, The Kurds are for the Kurds, March 9, 2013, Weekly Standard.
• Jonathan Spyer, Erdogan’s Kurdish Gambit, May 17, 2013, Jerusalem Post.
• Ayub Nuri, Israel and Kurdistan: Two Nations, One Geography, 19/5/2013, Rudaw

Alawites

• Martin W. Lewis, (Historical Geographer, Stanford), “Confusion About Syria’s Alawites“, March 29, 2011, GeoCurrents.

Christians

• Jean Aziz, “Syria’s Christians Threatened by Ideology, Geography“,  April 23, 2013, Al-Monitor Lebanon Pulse.

Maps

• Wikipedia, Syrian Civil War updated monthly
• Political Geography Now, Map Syrian conflict, regular updates
• @2wainu Twitter map October 2012 (see other twitter sources on map)
• NYT, Map of the Dispute in Syria, 12 March 2013

• Frontline, Early protests in Syria (Mid March until November 2011)

Scenarios on the future of Syria

• Ted Galen Carpenter, “Four Syrian Scenarios“, (no timeframe specified), The National Interest, 7 August 2012.
• CGA Scenarios, “SYRIA 2018“, (workshop and research) New York University’s Center for Global Affairs (CGA), August 2013.
• Philipp Holtmann, “Syria – a Best Case, a Worst Case and two Most Likely Scenarios“. Perspectives on Terrorism, North America, 7, jun. 2013. Date accessed: 19 Dec. 2013.
• Jonathan Githens-Mazer et al., “SYRIA: ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR UK” (Scenarios to 2017, report of workshop), University of Exeter, Strategy and Security Institute, November 2012.
• Floor Janssen et al., “Syria in 2013, Persistent Turmoil?“, (report of workshop), Clingendael Institute, August 2012.
• Brian Michael Jenkins, “Syrian Scenarios“, (no timeframe specified), The Rand Blog, Rand Corporation, 8 August 2012, see also Charles Blair, “A ruinous road to Damascus: Can the US avoid it?“, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 27 September 2013.
• Helene Lavoix, Potential Futures for Syria in the Fog of War, (Scenarios to 2018 + updates on website, research), Red (Team) Analysis, The Red (Team) Analysis Society, July 2013.

Some Primary Sources

• Syria video
• Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
• (12/12/2013) Syrian Observatory for HumanRights Facebook page
• Pro Al-Assad regime site called Zanobia (arabic)
• Syrian documents
• Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-islamiya
• (09/10/13) Liwa al-Tawhid (Tawhid Brigade) website
• Live Leak – Channel Syria 
• Syrian Liberation Front on Facebook
• (08/07/2013) Syrian Islamic Front on Facebook
• SITE, a Washington-based group that tracks jihadist material online
• ICT Jihadis website monitoring group – Insight First half of December 2012 
• Kavkaz Center: Chechen internet agency (independent, international and Islamic)
• Haqq Battalions Gathering (Tajammou Kataeb al-Haqq) on Facebook
• Russian-language jihadist in Syria website
• JIHADOLOGY: A clearinghouse for jihādī primary source material and translation service
• Sheikh al-Ya’qoubi Facebook page