ABSTRACT
As a longtime ideological competitor of the Baath party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) has maintained a complex and yet dynamic relationship with the Assad regime. After the SSNP’s violent exile from Syria in the mid-1950s, the party gradually drifted back into the regime’s orbit. The SSNP first adopted a hybrid coercive profile by supporting the Syrian regime in Lebanon after 1978 while remaining prohibited in Syria itself. In the mid-2000s, the SSNP managed to return to Syria. It shifted to a quasi-government coercive profile by becoming part of the Baath-led National Progressive Front without, however, fielding any forces in Syria. The 2011 Syrian civil war offered the SSNP new growth opportunities. Its Markaz’ faction deployed the Eagles of the Whirlwind to support Assad after 2013, trading loyal battlefield performance for greater room to conduct political outreach and recruitment. The party effectively shifted to a hybrid political profile. In a twist, the SSNP’s Amana faction under Rami Makhlouf fielded a breakaway force – the Hawks of the Whirlwind – as part of his growing and multi-dimensional power base. Yet Assad pre-empted any shift toward a hybrid- or even anti-government coercive profile of this armed organization, orchestrated Makhlouf’s downfall and dismantled both the Hawks and the Amana faction in 2020.
