![]() ![]() While sectarian tension are acknowledged, particularly Sunni-Alawite hostilities, as the narrative presents it, the civil conflict cannot be reduced to a sectarian one. The opposition’s Master Narrative is a complicated one. Framed this way, it seems conceivable that the international community can arm the opposition, reject dialogue with the regime, and indict Assad for war crimes. And, by using the “war on terror” frame, and emphasizing the jihadi element of the opposition, it triggers the international community’s identification as participants of the “war on terror” specifically of the jihadi variety.įraming the conflict as beginning with a popular revolt connected with the Arab Spring, legitimizes and encourages international intervention. And it ignores the historical genesis of the conflict beginning with the spray painting by the Daraa teenagers. This narrative frame effectively separates the events in Syria as distinct from the rest of the Arab Spring movements. There are also strategic historical oversights. It also Implies an equality of power between the state and its apparatus and what were at one time unarmed civilians, thereby marginalizing the ethical, or unethical, unfolding of events. If the Syrian conflicts are framed as a civil war, a particular version of events that emerges that projects the sovereignty of the state, and the head of state, and implies the illegitimacy of foreign opposition to the Head of State. The Moral Contraband of the Regime’s Narrative Frame: Without even looking at the narrative, just analyzing the frame, yields implications that are not overt. Narratives that influence, help people see a pattern where before there was just data. And like all narratives, they accentuate some events and diminish others, they structure an understanding of the world, attribute motives to actions, and compile events and experiences into meaningful structures. These are the narratives that are being projected out from Syria to the international community. This conflict is part of a popular revolt, part of the Arab Spring, driven by a desire for social justice rather than exclusively driven by Sunni sectarianism. Title: This is a revolution not a sectarian civil war. Syria is a secular state fighting Islamic extremists a s part of the “war on terror” that the international community is engaged in. Oppositional Master Narrative: TA International Community Syrian Regime’s Master Narrative: TA International Community They benefit from framing events as part of a popular revolution. They all benefit from representing a unified opposition. The opposition, as diverse as it is, has at least two things in common: 1. The regime wants to portray what is happening in Syria as a sectarian civil war. ![]() The regime’s narrative paints ISIS as the center of gravity in Syria – a strategically prudent representation.ĭestabilizing the prism through which the regime and the opposition (writ large) represent the nature of the conflicts, yields some interesting moral contraband. ![]() The Saturday morning announcement that the US and Russia have agreed to join forces to pound ISIS in Syria starting Monday is evidence that the Assad regime’s strategic narrative is dominating the narrative space through which the international community views the conflicts. ![]()
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