Assad’s Syria: Smaller, But With High Hope of Keeping Rebels Out

Businessmen Look to Start Over in a Smaller Syria

Though all territory in Syria is subject to change in control, after years of civil war there is an increasing recognition that Syria, as it appears on the map, is going to be very different from the Assad government’s Syria as it will exist going forward.

Size and wealth are the key differences, as Assad government territory is a fairly small fraction of what Syria once was, and doesn’t include most of the oil rich portions, which are now ISIS-held.

Still, there are high hopes that this segment of Syria, with its Alawite-dominated government, is going to hold strong against the rebels, and it seems set to be the most secular of the new Syrian states emerging.

With the former financial and industrial capital of Aleppo in ruins and on the outskirts of Assad government territory, Syrian businessmen are also seeing the new Syria as a time of opportunity, as companies vie to build a more Damascus-centric economy.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.