What's inspiring us - The Origins of the Syrian Conflict: Climate Change and Human Security

Here is our top pick over the recent months, utilised by Dr. Majd Al Naber, Team leader and Senior Researcher at WANA.

The Origins of the Syrian Conflict: Climate Change and Human Security, Marwa Daoudy (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

Marwa Daoudy is a native Syrian scholar of environmental security and Middle East politics, the focus of her research is the interconnection between climate change, water scarcity, and the Syrian uprising.

“Over the past decades, a climate-conflict nexus emerged and was applied to the Syrian case. According to this logic, climate change caused the 2006-2010 drought in Syria, the drought caused agricultural failure, agricultural failure caused poverty and discontent, culminating in the uprising. The bulk of climate-based analyses were made by US climate scientists and think-tanks lacking expertise on Syria. By challenging this line of reasoning, my goal was to contribute to the ongoing conversation on Syria from an insider perspective.

While global warming is real and international action is urgently needed, climate change was not at the forefront of the minds of Syrians in 2011. Instead, most people were focused on a moral ideal: the end of repression and social injustice. These are issues I care deeply about”.