The Damascus Spring: Assessing its Fragility and Stagnation

Abstract

This paper compares the Damascus Spring and Syrian Revolution through the political process model of social movement theory. In doing so this paper identifies the key differences between the two mobilizations which have utility in responding to the instrumental question of why the Damascus Spring was so fragile and why it succumbed to stagnation. Through this process, this paper seeks to deepen the utility of existing English-language scholarship on the Damascus Spring by structuring available information to distinguish the importance of different events and processes to the Damascus Spring as a whole.