Iran, Turkey and the Levant

Iran and Turkey have played an active role in the conflicts that have raged in the Levant over the last two decades. The successive violent crises and the disintegration of Lebanon and Syria, as well as Iraq in the region’s eastern edge, created the conditions for endless wars fought by networks of state and non-state actors, fueled by sectarianism, and entangled with existing inter-state competition. As Iran and Turkey have oscillated between noncompetitive and competitive forms of authoritarianism, the endless wars in the Levant have provided their governing elites with the context and the medium to shift their centers of gravity toward renewed forms of militarized nationalism and reshape their authoritarian rule in the face of rising domestic challenges. This book offers new perspectives on the resilience of authoritarianism in Iran and Turkey, and highlights its connection to the protracted conflicts in the Levant.