Syria is undergoing a crucial moment in its political history. In the broader framework of the so-called “Arab Spring”, the regime of Bashar al-Assad is facing a real internal revolt, started six months ago.
Unlike the popular movements that led to the fall of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, the Syrian protest movement is not yet united and incisive enough and, as a result, the outcome of the ongoing revolts is difficult to predict.
The political situation in Syria is been further complicated by the strategic relevance of the country that is one of the pivots of the entire regional political landscape. The Syrian case must be examined not only in the frame of the riots that have characterized the Arab world since the beginning of 2011, but also in its specificity. It is this specificity that, together with geopolitical and strategic factors, helps explain the current stalemate in which neither side can gain the upper hand.