Syria’s Lebanonization process. An historical excursus within the “non-existence” of Syrian national identity

The failure of the Syrian Spring is under the eyes of the whole world; an analysis of possible scenarios and final resolutions is currently impossible, while it is easy to assume that the pre – 2011 Syria will no longer find confirmation in the future: too many deaths, too many indiscriminate killings, too many inter-religious struggles. The failure of this country - which has played a significant role in contemporary Arab history, since the end of WWI to the decolonization process and from the Cold War to the post ‘89 phase - is symptomatically related to an identity fiasco whose responsibility is largely attributable to the political leadership of the al-’Assad family, but also, more generally, to a previous inability to shape a national distinctiveness able to conciliate the country’s different religious and political peculiarities. Pondering the abstract’s title it is important to highlight that a country like Syria, which tried to control the richer Lebanon from the ‘70s, promoting a divide et impera policy and triggering from the bottom a long civil war, was to undergo a very similar process, although taking a much longer course from the first half of the XX century. The Syrian “Lebanonization” sequence, only partially attributable to external responsibilities, is the main topic of this article: an historical journey in which Syria’s inability to build a true national identity emerges as symptomatic of a reluctance to feel part of an inclusive and plural state.