A01=Carl Rihan
Author_Carl Rihan
Category=NHW
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eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
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eq_non-fiction
foreign policy
geopolitics
Husni al-Za'im
intelligence
international relations
Lebanon
Middle East
militarism
security
Syria
Product details
- ISBN 9781526151049
- Weight: 590g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 17 Jun 2025
- Publisher: Manchester University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Coup in Damascus examines the military takeover of Syria in 1949, an event which precipitated the rise of authoritarianism across the region. Connecting economics, politics and history, it challenges traditional interpretations grounded in international relations by shifting the focus away from geopolitics and postcolonial studies, affirming instead the primacy of cost-calculating, utility driven political action. By bringing neoclassical and Austrian economics into contact with Middle East history, Coup in Damascus demonstrates how unsound monetary practices, the disruption of trade routes and excessive interventionism upset social and institutional equilibriums thereby leading to authoritarianism. Coup in Damascus also highlights how lingering tensions, or spillover costs, normally resolved through economic and political exchange, congested political systems thereby triggering violence and recurrence.
Carl Rihan is a political economist with more than a decade of experience covering twenty-two Arab States as well as fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS). He is an associate of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), specialized in macroeconomic stabilization, public financial management, and institutional analysis in the Middle East and North Africa region. Carl teaches and lectures at Ecole Jeannine Manuel, SciencesPo Lille, SciencesPo Paris, and the Catholic University of Lille. He is also the co-author of Governance Cooperation in a Conflict-Ridden Context (IIAS, 2024).
