ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the historians’ affirmation as a hypothesis positing the existence of connections between Syria’s internal political instability and her involvement in external conflicts, and seeks to test these connections in the light of linkage politics and conflict linkage concepts. It aims to distinguishe between several external Syrian environments, four of them dominant bi-lateral: Israel, Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan; and three systemic: inter-Arab, Israel-Arab, and the Powers. Patrick Seale’s focus is the reciprocal relationship between Syrian internal politics and the system of inter-Arab and inter-Power relations during the years 1945–1958 – from the beginning of Syria’s independence until her union with Egypt. The chapter discusses the causes of Syria’s internal political instability, historical and sociological studies focus on various dimensions that tend to identify Syria as a linkage politics state: geo-political; national-ideological; communal-demographic; structural-institutional; and internal-political. The communal-demographic dimension comprises two principal variables: communal and religious divisions, and rivalry between Syria’s main urban centers of Damascus and Aleppo.
