Syria, State Ideology and Climate Politics w/ Marwa Daoudy (E80)

This is a conversation with professor Marwa Daoudy, associate professor at Georgetown University and the author of the recently published book The Origins of the Syrian Conflict: Climate Change and Human Security.Topics Discussed:Climate change did not cause the Syrian revolution, despite this  narrative continuing to dominate in many circles, and why this  deterministic narrative strips away the agency of Syrian revolutionariesThe  ‘securitization’ of language, how refugees and migrants going to global  north countries are treated through militarized language, and how  calling them ‘climate migrants’ can be problematicHow did the pre-2011 drought affect the uprising, if at all?Bashar Al-Assad urban/rural divide and conquer strategyAssad’s neoliberal reforms and their impacts on water and food politicsThe role of ideology (baathism, neoliberalism etc) in SyriaThe  issue of ‘state security’ rhetoric and how a  Human-Environmental-Climate Security (HECS) framework can help  understand reality betterThe relationship between the World Bank and the Syrian regimeNeo-Malthusian politics and its presence in international politicsEurope’s extractivist economies and the complicity in scapegoating ‘climate migrants’The idea of ‘climate security’ and why it’s problematicBook Recommendations:Steppenwolf by Herman HesseMartin Eden by Jack LondonThe Crossing by Samar YazbeckThe Impossible Revolution by Yassin Haj-SalehThe Shell by Mustafa Khalifa+Samira’s Letters on Al JumhuriyaMusic by Tarabeat.