GEOPOLITICAL CALCULATIONS, COLONIAL SEPARATIST POLITICS AND NATION-BUILDING IN SYRIA

The geostrategic position of Syria was the main feature that allowed the West to gamble in the region in the 17th century. The disintegration and finally the downfall of the Ottoman empire in the First World War enabled the West to have a stronghold in the Middle East. Henceforth, the polarisation and division created by the West with their cultural blinders led to a much-divided society before ‘modern’ structures of Syrian state would even begin to emerge. When Syria got independence in April 1946, the West and French colonisers with their manipulative measures of stratification of people into class and sects accentuated the problem. Consequent of this policy led to a sharp divide between notables and peasantry and amongst the different communities and sects. This resulted in the growth of secessionists’ movements among the sub-state groups/identities within the states and competition from the neighbouring states like Jordan and Iraq in the region. The seed of separatist policies sowed by the colonial rulers in Syria continues to have serious implications even today. This paper critically analyses the role of the French Colonial powers in Syria and the policies executed that continues to impede the nation-building process in Syria.