In light of the historic rebel offensive in Syria, leading to the fall of the 53-year old Assad dynasty on 8th December 2024, this event will launch From Jihad to Politics: How Syrian Jihadis Embraced Politics by Jerome Drevon published by Oxford University Press.
Drevon's timely book offers an examination of the Syrian armed opposition, tracing the emergence of Jihadi groups in the conflict, their dominance, and their political transformation. Drawing upon field research and interviews with Syrian insurgents in northwestern Syria and Turkey, Drevon demonstrates how the context of a local conflict can shape armed groups' behaviour in unexpected ways. Further, he marshals unique evidence from the Arab world's most intense conflict to explain why the trajectory of the transnational Jihadi movement has altered course in recent years.
Drevon will be joined by a panel of experts whose research focuses on Syrian politics and political Islamism to discuss the strategic shifts of Syria's armed opposition groups. Bringing the conversation to the present day, the panel will explore the challenges facing Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham as they navigate governing a fractured country.
From Jihad to Politics: How Syrian Jihadis Embraced Politics is available open access here.
Meet our speakers and chair
Jerome Drevon is Senior Analyst on Jihad and Modern Conflict at International Crisis Group (ICG) and Research Associate at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID). Drevon received his PhD from Durham University before securing two fellowships at the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester. Drevon has conducted extensive field research in conflict zones, including Syria. He has interviewed hundreds of Jihadi militants and foreign fighters--from their military, political, and religious leaders to their foot soldiers--to gain a deeper understanding of their changing political views in armed conflicts.
Haid Haid is a Syrian columnist and a consulting fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House. Previously, Haid was a research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), King’s College London. He also worked as a programme manager on Syria and Iraq at the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Middle East Office in Beirut. Haid worked as a senior community services protection assistant at UNHCR’s Damascus office. Haid’s main research interests include security policies, governance, conflict resolution, and non-state actors.
Raihan Ismail is the His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford. Raihan’s research interests include Political Islam, sectarianism, and the intertwining nature of religion and politics in the Middle East. She has written in academic and non-academic outlets including the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage publication. She is the author of Saudi Clerics and Shia Islam (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Rethinking Salafism: The Transnational Networks of Salafi ‘Ulama in Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (Oxford University Press, 2021).
More about this event
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