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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.
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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.
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 ).
Articles
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]
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon was a League of Nations mandate founded in the aftermath of the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, concerning Syria and Lebanon. The mandate system was supposed to differ from colonialism, with the governing country intended to act as a trustee until the inhabitants were considered eligible for self-government. At that point, the mandate would terminate and a sovereign state would be born.
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.
Syrians are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, who have Arabic, especially its Levantine dialect, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indigenous elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years. By the seventh century, most of the inhabitants of the Levant spoke Aramaic. In the centuries after the Muslim conquest of the Levant in 634, Arabic became the dominant language, but a minority of Syrians retained Aramaic (Syriac), which is still spoken in its Eastern and Western dialects.
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.
Lebanon is an eastern Mediterranean country that has the most religiously diverse society within the Middle East, comprising 18 recognized religious sects. The religions are Islam, Christianity, and two other religions: Judaism and Baháʼí.
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.
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.
Lebanese Sunni Muslims refers to Lebanese people who are adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam in Lebanon, which is one of the largest denomination in Lebanon tied with Shias. Sunni Islam in Lebanon has a history of more than a millennium. According to a CIA 2018 study, Lebanese Sunni Muslims constitute an estimated 30.6% of Lebanon's population.
Jubb al-Jarrah is a village in central Syria, administratively part of the Homs Governorate. Nearby towns include al-Mukharram to the west, Salamiyah to the northwest and al-Qaryatayn further to the south. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Jubb al-Jarrah had a population of 2,255. Like other villages in the al-Mukharram District, Jubb al-Jarrah's inhabitants are predominantly Alawites. Historian Matti Moosa claims that prominent Alawite figures from the Ba'ath Party convened secretly at Jubb al-Jarrah on 30 January 1968 and made a decision there to abolish Muslim and Christian religious teaching in Syrian schools.
Ayn al-Tineh is a town in northwestern Syria administratively belonging to the Latakia Governorate, located east of Latakia. Nearby localities include the district center of al-Haffah to the northwest, Slinfah to the northeast, Farikah and Nabl al-Khatib to the east, Shathah to the southeast, Muzayraa to the south and al-Shir to the west. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Ayn al-Tineh had a population was 1,333 in 2004. It is the administrative center of the Ayn al-Tineh nahiyah ("subdistrict") which contains 13 localities with a collective population of 6,825. Its inhabitants predominantly Alawites.
Al-Sisiniyah is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Tartus Governorate, located southeast of Tartus. Nearby localities include Safita to the north, al-Bariqiyah to the northeast, Habnamrah and Marmarita to the east, al-Zarah to the southeast, al-Tulay'i to the southwest, Buwaydet al-Suwayqat to the west and Beit al-Shaykh Yunes to the northwest. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), al-Sisiniyah had a population of 2,667 in the 2004 census. It is the administrative center of the al-Sisiniyah nahiyah ("sub-district") which consisted of 19 localities with a collective population of 22,018 in 2004. The town's inhabitants are a mix of Alawites and Christians, with each community having its own mukhtar.
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.
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.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Fabrice Balanche, Lyon University.
Fabrice Balanche, Personal website
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