ABSTRACT
Historical-geographical Syria, lying between the Mediterranean and the middle Euphrates, has often functioned as the geographical keystone of the Middle East. Migrating peoples, marching armies, and multiple political influences have flowed and ebbed through this geographical location for millennia. Indigenous Syrians have at various times absorbed several of these ethnic and cultural groups and have sustained challenges to their own capacity for unity and even survival. Syria's relations with virtually all of its neighbors since 1950 have been marked by frictions and, in the case of Israel, by successive hostilities. Planning and development during the 1970s gave early emphasis to infrastructure and basic industries: highways, railroads, the Euphrates Dam, cement plants, iron and steel mills, and similar industries. Having the appropriate political connections brought some manufacturers high profits, while others languished in a system rife with high-level corruption. In 2009, the new Obama administration moved to reduce Syrian opposition to peace talks with Israel.
