Did Five Years of Drought Leads to Two Years of Revolution in Syria?
Negotiators in Geneva might not have brought the conflict in Syria to an end last week, but work recently published by an academic from Radboud University in the Netherlands explains how the 2006–10 drought contributed to its start. Writing in Middle Eastern Studies*, Francesca de Châtel makes it clear that “it was not the drought per se, but rather the government’s failure to respond to the ensuing humanitarian crisis that formed one of the triggers of the uprising, feeding a discontent that had long been simmering in rural areas.” In her view, the situation now facing Syria is “the