ASSESSMENTS

Why Syria's Government Has Survived the War

Mar 13, 2016 | 13:01 GMT

A banner depicting Syrian President Bashar al Assad stands near a street in Damascus. Al Assad's father, the previous president, helped build up the Syrian police state that al Assad inherited in 2000.

(LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images)

The Arab Spring protests of 2011 sent Syrians pouring into the streets of Damascus. Demonstrations turned into violence. Violence became all-out civil war. Yet with remarkable tenacity, the president has held on to territory through five years of bloody conflict, prolonging his family's control of the country even when confronted with opposition from the international community. The resilience of his government has much to do with the work of his father, who created a massive intelligence and security apparatus designed to maintain control with brutal force....

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