This book is interesting, but it's very slow. It took me a really long time to finish it, and I normally read a lot of nonfiction.

For years the world has watched as Syria has plunged into a terrifying and unprecedented civil war. What began as an uprising as the Arab Spring brought about change in other countries throughout the Middle East has become a full-blown war with various groups, including ISIS, fighting for control. It has also created the greatest refugee crisis seen in modern history and the world has watched as millions have fled their homes, risking their lives in a perilous journey across seas and borders.

But as we watch these horrors play out in the media, most of us in the West are watching a conflict that we do not understand much about. What is the history of Syria and the politics of modern society? How do cultural, religious, and linguistic differences factor in? What are the conditions that brought about this conflict?

In Destroying A Nation: The Civil War in Syria, Nikolaos van Dam, former Special Envoy of the Netherlands to Syria answers these questions and more. He explains the history of Syria, focusing on recent times starting with the political situation that brought about the Assad regime. He looks at how sectarian, regional, and tribal loyalties factor into politics and how Assad, a member of a minority group has been able to hold on to power in the face of public disenchantment.

The war in Syria is something that has captured my attention over the last few years, how could it not? But it was over the last year, as refugees began coming to Canada, that I truly realized I did not understand the conflict at all. As I began to read the individual stories of refugees, I want to learn more about what they were fleeing from, so I did this the best way I could - through books. And of the few books that I have read so far, this is the one that has given me the best understanding of what is happening in Syria.

Van Dam explains the history of the Syrian conflict in a way that is both academic and accessible to every reader. His writing is thoughtful and insightful, he brings an eye to it that not many have yet - having witnessed it first-hand and being able to explain it to Western readers. And because of his first-hand understanding of the conflict he is able to present not just an explanation or a history of it all but also provide a look at the future and how things should, or will, progress.

There is a lot more to the conflict that can be discussed but this isn’t the book for it. This book is one that is meant to be read by anyone who is watching the horrors that are unfolding on the other side of the world. A better understanding of what is happening in Syria is needed in the countries that are accepting the refugees (and very much needed in the countries that are refusing to accept refugees) and this is the book that will help readers gain that understanding.

The byzantine nature of inter-House rivalry in ‘Game of Thrones’ pales into insignificance compared to the labyrinthine complexities of the present-day Syrian conflict. However, as author of the highly acclaimed ‘The Struggle for Power in Syria’ (first published in 1979) and Special Envoy of the Netherlands for Syria in 2015-16, Nikolaos van Dam is better equipped than most to make sense of the civil war in Syria and his book ‘Destroying a Nation’ takes the reader by the hand and offers a scholarly yet accessible steer through the minefield of conflicting interpretations and swiftly changing events.

Having said that, I dislike Van Dam’s characterising the war as “inevitable” following the Syrian revolution. Whilst war and revolution often go hand in hand, and although Van Dam does not simply make an assertion but seeks to justify his claim by reference to “the earlier behaviour (and misbehaviour) of the Syrian regime” (as described in detail in his previous book), I remain wary of the fact that most events appear inevitable with the benefit of hindsight. Nevertheless, he deserves praise for the way in which he explains clearly why the attempted suppression of dissent by the Asad regime in 2011 confronted unprecedented problems given the impetus provided by the Arab Spring and how foreign intervention on both sides (political, military and financial) both complicated and catalysed the process of breakdown. The West, quite rightly, is apportioned its share of the blame.

Contemporary history is notoriously difficult because the necessary sources are only partly, if at all, available and because a sense of perspective and disengagement is so hard to achieve. Van Dam surmounts these problems as well as one can imagine any author doing and, not content merely to explain how we’ve arrived at the current state of affairs, also bravely suggests how best the conflict might be resolved.

Time will tell precisely how insightful Van Dam has been but what cannot be contested is that this book represents the very best available means at present by which an educated individual can develop an understanding or enhance their existing understanding of this vital issue.

I really enjoyed this book. I didnt have a lot of insight into Syria, just bits and pieces about the conflict there now. So this book was great. Very interesting to know the facts and hear about how these places used to be. Nothing better than someone whos been there and witnessed it first hand

Nikolaos van Dam manages to describe the complex tragedy of what has befallen Syria and why this nation has become such a major ongoing tragedy with a masterful succinctness, and has essentially ended up creating what should be considered a go-to guide on the subject.

I am always on the lookout for concise, reliable works that I can put into the hands of people who have demonstrated via reading longform journalism that they actually want solid background on a contemporary crisis--in this case, the six years and still unfolding Syrian Civil War. Van Dam is a scholar of the Middle East and has been on scene, and in the negotiating rooms of participants from Ankara to Moscow for the duration, and began his diplomatic career for the Netherlands in Beirut in the early 1980s.