Fabrice Balanche

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Fabrice Balanche (born November 3, 1969, in Belfort, France) is a geographer and specialist in the political geography and the geopolitics of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and the Middle East in general.

Contents

Biography

Graduated Doctor in Tours University (2000), he defended his thesis The Alaouites, space and power in the Syrian coastal region: an ambiguous national integration (in French), which was taken up and published in 2006 under the title The Alaouite region and the Syrian power (La région alaouite et le pouvoir syrien).

Fabrice Balanche is an assistant professor of geography (since 2007) in Lyon University and Adjunct Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy since 2018. He has been a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (2017-2018), after having been a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (2015-2017).

His first stay in the Middle East began in 1990. Since then, he has lived for ten years between Syria and Lebanon, privileged areas of his research. Fellow (1990-1991), research grantee (1996-1998) at the French Institute of the Near East (IFPO), then director of the Urban Observatory of the Near East at the IFPO (2003 – 2007). Director of the Research and Studies Group on the Mediterranean and the Middle East (GREMMO, UMR 5291) at the Maison de l’Orient (2010 and 2015). Since 2017, he belongs to the Environment, City and Society laboratory (EVS, UMR 5600) of the University of Lyon.

His research is part of a global geography with the Middle East as a framework. He tries to understand the relationships between the construction of territories and the pollical power from the local scale at the regional level. In this context, he participated in various scientific research programs, such on urban development in the Middle East (2007-2011), the World Bank program “ Building for Peace in the Middle East and North Africa ”. In 2021, he launched a research program on “The Reconstruction of the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq)” supported by the research centre “Urban World Intelligence” (Intelligence des Mondes Urbains).

In addition to his academic work, he carries out expertise in economics, geopolitics and development in the region for public institutions, development agencies and economic intelligence companies. From 2005 to 2011, he notably worked as a consultant for the German Cooperation (GIZ) and the French Agency for Development (AFD) in Syria on a program to preserve water resources. Since 2018, he directed a Syrian observatory (2018-2021) then a Levant observatory (2023) within AESMA on behalf of the General Directorate of International Relations and Strategy (DGRIS). He works with various NGOs since the start of the Syrian crisis. My humanitarian commitment led me to “ Médecins Sans Frontière ” (2018), “ Solidarités ” (2019-2020) and Mines Advisory Group (MAG) for which I carried out a study on security in North-East Syria (2022 ).

Publications

Books

Collective works

Articles

Reception

He is regularly quoted in the written press on the subject of Syria [1] in order to present his methods of mapping the Syrian civil war and to express his point of view on the situation. [2] [3] [4] [5]

He is recognized and named as an expert on the issues of development of the Middle East and the Syrian crisis [6] [7] and as "one of the leading French experts on Syria." [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lebanon</span> Country in West Asia

Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east, by Israel to the south, and by the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance away from the country's coastline. Lebanon is located at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterlands. Lebanon has a population of more than five million people and covers an area of 10,452 square kilometres (4,036 sq mi). Beirut is the country's capital and largest city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levant</span> Region in the Eastern Mediterranean

The Levant is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of West Asia and core territory of the political term Middle East. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to Cyprus and a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea in western Asia: i.e. the historical region of Syria, which includes present-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian territories and most of Turkey southwest of the middle Euphrates. Its overwhelming characteristic is that it represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia. In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands; that is, it included all of the countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece in Southern Europe to Cyrenaica, Eastern Libya in Northern Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of Syria</span>

Syria's estimated pre–Syrian Civil War 2011 population was 22 ±.5 million permanent inhabitants, which included 21,124,000 Syrians, as well as 1.3 million Iraqi refugees and over 500,000 Palestinian refugees. The war makes an accurate count of the Syrian population difficult, as the numbers of Syrian refugees, internally displaced Syrians and casualty numbers are in flux. The CIA World Factbook showed an estimated 20.4m people as of July 2021. Of the pre-war population, six million are refugees outside the country, seven million are internally displaced, three million live in rebel-held territory, and two million live in the Kurdish-ruled Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

Sectarianism is a debated concept. Some scholars and journalists define it as pre-existing fixed communal categories in society, and use it to explain political, cultural, or religious conflicts between groups. Others conceive of sectarianism as a set of social practices where daily life is organised on the basis of communal norms and rules that individuals strategically use and transcend. This definition highlights the co-constitutive aspect of sectarianism and people’s agency, as opposed to understanding sectarianism as being fixed and incompatible communal boundaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alawites</span> Muslim sect centred in Syria

The Alawites, also known as Nusayrites, are an Arab ethnoreligious group that live primarily in the Levant and follow Alawism, a religious sect that splintered from early Shi'ism as a ghulat branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali ibn Abi Talib, revered as the first Imam in the Twelver school, as the physical manifestation of God. The group was founded by Ibn Nusayr during the 9th century. Ibn Nusayr was a disciple of the tenth Twelver Imam, Ali al-Hadi and of the eleventh Twelver Imam, Hasan al-Askari. For this reason, Alawites are also called Nusayris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon</span> League of Nations mandate of France in the Middle East (1923–1946)

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Al-Qassabin is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Jableh District of the Latakia Governorate, and located south of Latakia. Nearby localities include Ayn al-Sharqiyah and Beit Yashout to the east and Siyano, Jableh and Bustan al-Basha to the northwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Qassabin had a population of 780 in the 2004 census. Its inhabitants are predominantly Alawites.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Haffah</span> Town in Latakia, Syria

Al-Haffah is a town in northwestern Syria administratively belonging to the Latakia Governorate, located 33 kilometres east of Latakia. It is the centre of al-Haffah District, one of the four districts (mantiqah) of the Latakia Goverorate. Located at an average height of 310 metres above sea level, al-Haffa's population was 4,298 in 2004 according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Together with the surrounding villages in the al-Haffa subdistrict (nahiya) greater al-Haffa had a population of 23,347. Half of the town's inhabitants are Sunni Muslim, about 40% are Alawite, while Christians constitute about 10% of the population. The communities have lived together in al-Haffah for centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Lebanon</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Institut français du Proche-Orient</span> French research center

The French Institute of the Near East is part of a network of French research centers abroad. The IFPO has branches in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq.

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Lebanese Shia Muslims, communally and historically known as matāwila, are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role alongside Lebanon's main Sunni, Maronite and Druze sects. The vast majority of Shia Muslims in Lebanon adhere to Twelver Shi'ism, making them the only major Twelver Shia community extant in the Levant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lebanese Sunni Muslims</span> Sunni Muslims in Lebanon

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Al-Safsafah is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus Governorate, located southeast of Tartus and 13 kilometers north of the border with Lebanon. Nearby localities include Ayn al-Zibdeh and Kafr Fo to the southeast, al-Tulay'i to the east, Buwaydet al-Suwayqat to the northeast, Beit al-Shaykh Yunes to the north, Ayn al-Zarqa to the northwest and al-Hamidiyah to the west. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Safsafah had a population of 6,011 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the al-Safsafah nahiyah ("sub-district") which contained 19 localities with a collective population of 23,416 in 2004. The inhabitants are predominantly Alawites.

Al-Mitras is a village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus Governorate, located southeast of Tartus. Nearby localities include Marmarita and Zweitina to the east, al-Zarah to the southeast, al-Tulay'i to the southwest, al-Sisiniyah to the west and al-Bariqiyah to the north. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), al-Mitras had a population of 2,138 in the 2004 census. Its inhabitants are predominantly Sunni Muslims.

Al-Khreibat is a village and suburb in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus Governorate, located southeast of Tartus. Nearby localities include Beit Kammun to the south, Dibbash to the southeast, Tayshur to the east, and al-Shaykh Saad to the north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federalization of Syria</span> Scenario to end the Syrian Civil War

The federalization of Syria has been controversially proposed as a possible solution to end the Syrian Civil War. In the broadest sense, it means turning the centralized Syrian Arab Republic into a federal republic with autonomous subdivisions. Many powers and actors involved in the Syrian Civil War have entertained the idea of "federal division", not least among them Russia, United Nations representatives, the United States and Israel. Bashar al-Assad has publicly rejected the idea of federalism, asserting that the Arab majority in Syria is opposed to such proposals. Most of the neighbouring countries in the region have also dismissed the proposal, including the members of the Arab League and Turkey.

References

  1. "Alep: pourquoi les rebelles ont-ils perdu ?" (in French). 2016-12-14. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  2. 1 2 "The Political Geography of Syria's War: An Interview With Fabrice Balanche". 2015-01-30. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  3. géopolitique, Steve Nadjar, Journaliste Responsable contenu du site/Spécialisé en. "Fabrice Balanche, géographe spécialiste de la Syrie: " L'utopie mobilisatrice des djihadistes demeure la destruction d'Israël "". Actualités Juives (in French). Retrieved 2017-02-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. "Syrie: "Il est trop tôt pour parler de tournant", estime Fabrice Balanche" (in French). 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  5. "Daech espère des représailles contre les musulmans". 24heures.ch/. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  6. "Fabrice Balanche - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy". www.washingtoninstitute.org. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  7. "Fabrice Balanche: biographie, actualités et émissions France Culture". France Culture (in French). Retrieved 2017-02-25.

Fabrice Balanche, Lyon University.

Fabrice Balanche, Personal website