Event description
This CCDP seminar will host Jerome Drevon discussing his book From Jihad to Politics: How Syrian Jihadis Embraced Politics .
About the Book
The Syrian regime unleashed unprecedented violence to suppress large-scale non-violent protests amid the Arab uprisings. Hundreds of armed groups formed throughout the country to defend the protesters and fight back. However, in contrast to other conflicts previously dominated by al-Qaeda and Islamic State, the two largest Syrian Jihadi groups, Ahrar al-Sham and then Jabhat al-Nusra, rejected global jihad and began to cultivate new ties with the population, other armed opposition groups, and even foreign states. This strategic shift is a response to the Jihadi paradox—a realization that while Jihadis excel at leading insurgencies, they fail to achieve political victories. In From Jihad to Politics, Jerome Drevon offers an examination of the Syrian armed opposition, tracing the emergence of Jihadi groups in the conflict, their dominance, and their political transformation. Drawing upon field research and interviews with Syrian insurgents in northwestern Syria and Turkey, Drevon demonstrates how the context of a local conflict can shape armed groups' behavior in unexpected ways. Further, he marshals unique evidence from the Arab world's most intense conflict to explain why the trajectory of the transnational Jihadi movement has altered course in recent years.
About the Author
Jérôme Drevon is research associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding and senior analyst on Jihad and Modern Conflict at the International Crisis Group (ICG). He was previously advisor for Non-State Armed Groups at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Jérôme is particularly interested in armed groups’ trajectories in armed conflicts, which he has researched extensively in both Egypt and Syria. Jerome focus specifically on the transformation of armed groups into more pragmatic and mainstream political actors. His first book on jihadi groups’ strategic developments in Egypt is forthcoming at Oxford University Press.
About the Discussants
Souhail Belhadj Klaz, researcher and visiting professor in the Master in International and Development Studies (MINT-Graduate Institute), holds a PhD in Political Science at Sciences Po Paris. He benefits from 20 years of experience in research on politics in Syria and Tunisia and is the author of the book La Syrie de Bashar al-Asad. Anatomie d'un régime autoritaire (Belin 2013). With the support of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, he was the principal investigator of the three-year project (2016-2019) Tunisia Security Provision and Local State Authority in a Time of Transition. He is currently the leading investigator of the policy research project Mapping Military and Security Actors in the Syrian Economy and is conducting in parallel research on Migration, Mobility and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Cooperation Process.
Dr. Bilal Salaymeh is a post-doctoral fellow in the department of International Relations/Political Science. His thesis focuses on the question of “Oligopoly of Violence.” He is also a doctoral researcher at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) as part of the project “A Child of its Time: The Impact of World Politics on Peacebuilding.”
about the seminars
Each semester, CCDP hosts a series of internal seminars to give our faculty, staff and affiliates the opportunity to present their work and receive feedback. The goal of the seminars is to have an informal and frank conversation about the research presented, and exchange ideas across disciplines and expertise, going beyond academic silos. Speakers at the seminars are both early career and senior scholars.
Apolline Foedit is organising the seminars for the academic year 2024-2025. For further information, get in touch at apolline.foedit@graduateinstitute.ch.