Given the fluidity of the Syrian civil war, its easy to lose track of the “big picture”. To that end, this article provides an interesting analysis of the regime’s strategic position. However, it does seem to gloss over one very important thing when gauging the regime’s ability to contain dissent among the loyalist community: their lack of options. No matter how dissatisfied they become with the situation, there really isn’t much of an alternative to Assad for many of them, especially the Alawi.
Read more at: http://carnegie-mec.org/2014/12/11/assad-regime-s-political-achilles-heel/hwdw
IR Theory & Practice 