Syria has become something of a second home for me. Since my first visit to the country in 1989 to conduct research on my dissertation, I have visited it over thirty times, staying for months at a time on occasion. I have, therefore, come to know Syria quite well for a Westerner, often learning about the country from the inside out. Although nothing compared to the suffering of Syrians today, it has been one of the most difficult periods of my life to see a number of friends and acquaintances on both sides of the conflict having been killed or displaced as the result of the civil war that has raged since 2011. One of those people was Dr. Khalid al-Asaad, the Head of Antiquities of the magnificent Roman era ruins at Palmyra. Dr. Khalid had personally escorted me and my family around Palmyra on multiple occasions. When the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took over the city from Syrian government forces, he decided to stay rather than flee, as most of its inhabitants had done. It appears Dr. Khalid remained because he wanted to try to do what he could to preserve the ruins and museum against the inclination of ISIS to destroy anything that was pre- or non-Islamic. After about a month of ISIS occupation, Dr. Khalid was beheaded at age eighty-two. Thereafter ISIS went on to damage and destroy a number of priceless ruins.

Stories of suffering and senseless violence such as this unfortunately are too numerous to count. I have tried to do what I can since the beginning of the civil war to facilitate conflict resolution and/or create the parameters for political dialogue between opposing sides. I developed and organized (along with William Ury) the Harvard University–NUPI (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)–Trinity University Syria Research Project, funded by the governments of Norway and Switzerland. I led a team of researchers in 2012–13 to meet with most of the stakeholders in the Syrian conflict in and outside of Syria, including many Syrian armed opposition leaders and Syrian government officials. The data provided necessary insights into the dynamics of the conflict in order to formulate possible pathways toward conflict resolution. In fall 2013 we completed a final report for the project and presented our findings at the highest levels in Europe, the United States, and at the United Nations (an abridged version is available at the link listed in Chapter 8, note 2). In 2014–16 I engaged in what essentially became phase two of the project, Trinity partnering in this instance with Conflict Dynamics International or CDI (based in Cambridge, MA) and funded by the Danish government. We continued our efforts at finding common ground among the combatants. In 2017 I began working with The Carter Center and CDI on an initiative along similar lines, and it is currently ongoing as of this writing. As such, I have had the opportunity to observe at close quarters many aspects of the Syrian civil war, which, I believe, has only enhanced my understanding and, hopefully, my portrayal of it, for instance in my book Syria: The Fall of the House of Assad (2013), and subsequent writings and commentaries.

Finally, as is well known, I met regularly with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and many other leading Syrian officials between 2004 and 2009, first conducting research for what would become the book The New Lion of Damascus: Bashar al-Asad and Modern Syria (2005), and thereafter in mostly futile attempts to improve US–Syria relations. However, again, it provided me with a uniquely close vantage point from which to view the inner workings of the Syrian government and its president. Hopefully, in this book, I have been able to translate all of these experiences into a better understanding of a country for which and a people for whom I have great affection.

I would like to thank Polity Press, and its editor, Dr. Louise Knight, for approaching me in 2017 with this opportunity. It is a book I have long thought about writing, that is, a general, accessible history of modern Syria, but for one reason or another, mostly because of my involvement in various diplomatic initiatives, I was not able to do so. Since this volume is by design a concise history of modern Syria, I had to perform triage at times on what or what not to include, so this is by no means an exhaustive treatment of the subject. It has been a pleasure to work with Louise as well as her assistant editor, Nekane Tanaka Galdos, production editor Rachel Moore, copy-editor Justin Dyer, and the whole Polity Press production team. Finally, I would not be able to do anything of any note without the love and support of my wife, Judy Dunlap, through whom everything I do flows.

For the people of Syria …