Syria and the middle east peace process

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY. Vol. 12, No. 4,

July 1993, 386-391

Book reviews Sjm’aand theMiddle EastPeace Process,Alasdair Drysdale and Raymond A. Hinnebusch, Council on Foreign Relations Press, New York, 1991, 244 pp., $16.95. This book comprises six chapters. In the Introduction, the authors set out the central thesis of the book that there can be no comprehensive, lasting, or stable Middle East peace without a Syrian-Israeli peace. They also assert that recent changes in the world and the region present excellent opportunities for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all, but that enormous obstacles still stand in the way of a comprehensive peace agreement. Chapter 2, ‘The Asad Regime’, is a synopsis of postIndependence Syria and the rise and the role of the Bath party in it. It contains summaries of Syria’s internal problems, prospects for political liberalization and the state of Syria’s economy. The reading could have been eased by using tables and graphs to lighten the burden of trying to follow the statistics through the text. Chapter 3, Xsad’s RegionaI Strategy’, outlines Syria’s perception of its national self within the Levant and the Arab world, including its aspirations for a Greater Syria in the Levant, its views on itself as the flagship of pan-Arabism and its relations with several other Middle Eastern states and the Palestinians, within the framework of the struggle with Israel. Each of the sections in this chapter is arranged chronologically and sketches the course of the chameleon-like relations between Syria and its Arab neighbors. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with Syria and Israel and Syria and the superpowers, respectively. Again, the rather dry factual accounts are chronological, and if not exactly written from a pro-Syrian viewpoint, that viewpoint is sympathetic to the Syrian regime. The Six-Day War of 1967 is dealt with cursorily. Sixteen pages are devoted to the October War of 1973 and the first flirtations with peace talks in which Syria’s conditions for a ‘just’ its persistent rejection of peace, including interim and unilateral agreements, are repeated. Ten pages cover Syria’s adventure in Lebanon and her relations with the various factions there.

The remainder of the fourth chapter is an account, but hardly an analysis, of Syria’s military capabilities and represents a foray into speculations about future wars and possibilities for peace arr~gemen~ with Israel. The following chapter deals with the relations between Syria and the superpowers, the US and the former USSR, outlining the reasons for Syria’s emergence as the major client state of the Soviet Union in the region and, from the post-October War disengagement agreements of 1974 and Henry Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy, its changing relations with the US. In the concluding sections of Chapter 5, the authors again engage in speculation, this time over the future of Syrian relations with the superpowers, especiaily the US, in the wake of the changing world political situation that the authors were experiencing as they wrote. The final chapter, ‘Syria and the Peace Process: Options for the United States’, attempts to show the extent to which the book and its authors followed ciosely the course of world events in 1990 and 1991 and how the ‘new world order’ that emerged from the Gulf War would impose new constraints on international relations. In attempting to follow world events right up to editorial deadlines, the authors had little alternative but to surmise. However, events have moved very fast between October 1991 and June 1992. The ‘new world order’ has yet to emerge; the former Soviet Union is still disintegrating into ever-diminishing component parts; Yugoslavia almost already has; the future of Europe is less clear than it seemed nine months ago; and the US appears to have considerably less influence than it did in February 1991 at the end of the Gulf War or even in November of that year when it succeeded (along with the USSR!) in bringing Israel and Syria along with representatives of Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinians, to Madrid and then Washington to begin talking about their differences. The major problem with this book is that it falls between two styles. It is not a scholarly work, although it is dressed up to look like one, and it is not quite a piece of journalism because

BOOK REVIEWS of its pretentions ostensibly

as a scholarly work. The book

deals with Syria and the Middle East

peace process-but

only indirectly.

In reality, it

is little more than a potted history of the Ba’th regime

in Syria

under

Hafez Asad and

the

387

War, spending

policies

of the Pentagon

served

implicit

regional

as the

policy of the US federal government Several

studies

distribution

for American policy-makers

tions of defense

and other interested

piece of journalism Friedman’s

on the region such as Tom

to Jet-ma&n (1989) or

From Btirut

have

examined

and regional spending

1988;

O’hUallachain,

1987;

Markusen,

at the urban scale (for an exception, on secondary

and

tertiary sources; there is not a single reference an original Syrian document there are no original

to

or statistic, and thus

analyses. Better use could

the impact of US military outlays

welcome

contribution

defense

spending

the two maps that appear,

allows

contains

a glaring

error;

amongst

the

the

more

issues as well.

a

cross-roads

with

a

name!

It

little that is new to an understanding

on

generally confined broadened

than

to

The book

include

chapter,

reader

defense

spending.

is governed

to the subject of

activities

Syria directed

but uninformed

Pentagon

layman,

at the intelligent

it could

speculative.

have been

As a political

briefer,

and less

geographer,

there

is

little here to make me think other than that this book is a major disappointment.

civilian

and

Kirby presents The

problems.

tives of defense

local

of

intended

of the

to ameliorate

widely considered the impera-

set at the national

with the interests

The recognition the

usual

provides

of local

that national and

may not coincide

spending

defense

by the policies

Although

it counters

defense

an overview of

location

spending,

interests

since

to be

ideological

to Iocal economies,

level, often conflict

Stanley Waterman

important

is not

to be beneficial

communities,

Department of Geography U&w&y ofHai$a

expenditures, questions,

is divided into three parts. In the

opening

know. As a general introduction

to its analysis. This

military

to economic

of the Middle East political impasse that a regular of the ‘quality‘ press would not already

a

on US

at the urban scale, it brings a perspective

debate

Israeli towns listed on the map, Beit Ma’on is no contributes

to the literature

military spending. Not only does it investigate US political economy

Heights

see Lotchin,

1984). The Pentagon and the Citiesis therefore

have been made of tables, graphs and maps-of that of the Golan

Hall,

1991). However, relative-

ly few examine

entirely

and

Malecki and Stark,

the clarity and brevity of one of The Economist’s relies

spatial impiica-

at the national

state scale (see, for example, Campbell and Deitrick,

the

development

country surveys. This book

(Markusen,

1986).

outside world, written to provide a background parties. It lacks the interest and the bite of a good

have

development

is important

assumption

unqualified

that

benefits

to local communities.

Reference

The second

FRIEDMAN,T. L. (1989). From Beimt

to Jerusalem.

New

defense

York: Farrar, Straus, Gram.

chapter,

military-industrial arena,

by Ettlinger,

focuses

on

firms. ils major actors in the these

companies

are very dif-

ferent from their civilian counterparts,

With the

Pentagon as their sole market, military-industrial 7%e Pentagon and the Cities,Andrew Kirby (ed.),

firms do not compete

Sage, Newbury Park, CA, 1992.

the case in the civilian marketplace.

Rather, they

compete

and political

The

epic

provoked defense

US military renewed spending

build-up

interest

on American

society. The importance shaping the trajectory

of the economy

of defense

ment and in the regional restructuring is now well recognized.

ment

new

regions,

industries

and

of and

spending

of LJS industrial

economy of

1980s

in the impacts

in

developof the IJS

The developnew

industrial

such as Silicon Valley, is directly linked

to the composition military expenditures.

and spatial distribution Since the Second

of

World

on the basis of cost, as is

on the basis of technotogy

influence.

In their attempts

contracts,

defense

political

coalitions

with local

firms

to secure

that include

and national

defense

have the support workers

politicians,

of

along

Ettlinger’s

attempt to situate defense firms in development theory

is somewhat

problematical.

reviews

literature,

the linkages between various develop-

ment

theories

voluminous

and military-industrial

main elusive. There of prospects

a

Although

Ettlinger

is an interesting

for conversion

amount

of

firms rediscussion

to civilian produc-