Reconstruction as Violence in Assad's Syria: How rebuilding became a weapon of war

Reconstruction is often assumed to mark the end of violence and the beginning of recovery. In practice, however, reconstruction can itself become violence by other means.

This central idea is explored in Reconstruction as Violence in Assad's Syria, edited by Nasser Rabbat and Deen Sharp, which offers both insight and a stark warning about the future of conflict in Syria.

In this context, it is important to note that while the book focuses on the Assad era and does not directly address the post-Assad transition under Ahmed Al-Sharaa, many of its lessons remain relevant to Syria's reconstruction today.

To make this argument, the book advances the concept of urbicide, defined as the deliberate attempt to kill a city by destroying its infrastructure, architecture, homes, streets, shops, and parks to wipe out local communities and dismantle the social fabric.

Building on this concept, Nasser and Sharp contrast their approach with most existing scholarship on urbicide, which tends to focus on destruction caused by direct warfare. They argue instead that reconstruction in Syria under Assad — from planning to execution — was designed to further the destruction of local communities deemed 'disloyal', creating a dynamic in which conflict could easily be reignited.

The consequences of this approach became especially clear after the 2011 uprising, which saw a massive uptick in urbicide across the country.

As the book notes, "No city, village, or historic site was left untouched, and many sustained damage to the extent that they are either lost for good or will take the work of a generation or two to restore."

This logic was articulated explicitly at the highest levels of the regime. In 2017, former president Bashar al-Assad laid out his vision for Syria, declaring the Mediterranean country to be more homogeneous and therefore, in his words, a 'healthier' place. The speech followed years of mass destruction of Syrian cities and the forced displacement of the civilian population.

From dream to nightmare projects

One essay in the volume, by Sawsan Abou Zainedin, examines the impact of these homogenising efforts on the city of Homs.

In 2012, Sunni neighbourhoods such as Baba Amr — which had played a central role in the revolt and were home to many rebel fighters — were among the areas forcibly depopulated by the regime.

As Sawsan writes, "Homogenising Syria has been a war pursued through different means. Central to it is the manipulation of the built environment in targeted areas. Imposing homogeneity is a form of annihilation referred to by urbanists as urbicide."

This process was not improvised during the war but had earlier precedents: in 2007, well before the 2011 uprising, the regime had outlined plans to redevelop Homs through what became known as the Homs Dream project.

The plans, which included luxury skyscrapers, shopping malls, and other neoliberal reforms, were widely opposed by residents and quickly earned the nickname the Homs Nightmare due to fears of land confiscation and property loss.

The neighbourhoods slated for redevelopment were largely Sunni and Christian, leading some to suspect that the aim was to push these communities out of the city centre, while Alawite neighbourhoods were left untouched.

Although the project was shelved in 2011, it appeared to resurface after the regime reclaimed Homs in 2012. As part of the city's redevelopment, these same neighbourhoods once again became central targets, with concerns over disloyalty to the regime shaping reconstruction to socially engineer elements of society deemed problematic.

Land ownership as a tool of control

A key feature of Syrian urban development, according to the book, is the role of informal settlements. These are buildings and neighbourhoods that have emerged without official permission and have a long history in Syria, with the book estimating that roughly half of the country's population lives in them.

Valerie Clerc's chapter highlights that until 2012, the Syrian regime rarely destroyed these non-legal houses. Known in Arabic as Mukhalafats, these neighbourhoods expanded dramatically in the 1950s, as large waves of urban migration coincided with a shortage of formal housing.

Valerie observes that "the idea of the right to housing was present in the logic of the state and prevented large-scale demolitions of these zones," and the state even built facilities to improve these informal areas.

However, in 2012, as part of the crackdown, the regime changed laws and the discourse around the Mukhalafats, shifting the state's logic from the right to housing to the right to ownership, and weaponised land ownership to confiscate property, dismantle informal areas, and repopulate them.

As Valerie notes, "Both urban renewal of informal settlements and wartime conquest have a common target: evicting a selected population from a certain piece of land to be reattributed to others."

Damascus and the responsibility to rebuild

In the long run, Reconstruction as Violence in Assad's Syria warns that these urban redesign policies are likely to fuel further conflict and should be seen as an extension of the war itself, rather than a separate phase.

Although Syria is now under new leadership, the task of resolving these issues and reconstructing the country falls to the government in Damascus.

Bashar may be gone, but the challenges he left behind persist, contributing to ongoing tensions that could ignite further conflict. The book provides important insight into how and why this might occur.

Furthermore, by examining Syria's past and how reconstruction can be manipulated, the book offers unique insights into war and post-war revitalisation efforts, which will interest both Syria scholars and those studying other post-conflict countries.

Usman Butt is a multimedia television researcher, filmmaker and writer based in London who read International Relations and Arabic Language at the University of Westminster and completed a Master of Arts in Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter