"Since the early weeks of the so-called Arab Spring, high hopes for democratic, social, and political change in the Middle East have been met with varying degrees of frustration. Particularly in the subregion of the Levant, regional uprisings have turned to violent conflict in places such as Syria, Iraq, and the Gaza Strip. In Syria, popular unrest has caused one of the most brutal civil wars the region ever has witnessed and enormous human suffering, yet the international community has shown an appalling inability to act. The Syrian people have become the pawn in a complex setting of brutal regime repression, militia warfare, and the diverging interests of regional states and international great powers. Taking the war in Syria as its central point of reference, this book raises the question of whether the developments in the Levant might lead not only to processes of regime change, but also to a fundamental alteration of its entire state system"-- ""In light of the ongoing Syrian civil war, the advancement of the "Islamic State" (IS) in both Syria and Iraq, and the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this book raises the question of whether the developments in the Levant might lead not only to regime change, but to a fundamental alteration of its entire state system"--Provided by the publisher"--